A Social Urgency

Guimond, Amy Melissa

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-54250-8_1

Amy Melissa Guimond²

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Abstract

Guimond presents a much needed justification for the social necessity of understanding the experiences of what it means to be a Caucasian female American who has converted to Islam since September 11, 2001, particularly in light of the fact that there is an apparent void in the literature regarding this topic. This chapter presents an overview of information and statistics about the American Muslim population and the increase of anti-Muslim sentiment since 9/11. This chapter includes an in depth section of phenomenological researcher bracketing which was necessary prior to tackling a research project of this magnitude, an overview of the research problem, the research purpose, and the potential impact of this research.

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Notes

1.
Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of the New World Order (New York: Touchstone, 1996).
2.
“America’s Changing Religious Landscape,” Pew Research Center, May 12, 2015, http://pewrsr.ch/1FhDslC.
3.
Lori Peek, Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans After 9/11 (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2011).
4.
Geneive Abdo, Mecca and the Main Street (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006); Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin, Framing Muslims: Stereotyping and Representation after 9/11 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011); Lori Peek, Behind the Backlash.
5.
“Future of the Global Muslim Population,” Pew Research Center, January 27, 2011, http://pewrsr.ch/1hUQ1qG.
6.
“Islam the 2nd Largest Religion in 20 States,” OnIslam, June 5, 2014, http://bit.ly/2aD3Wmb.
7.
Reid Wilson, “The Second Largest Religion in Each State,” The Washington Post, June 4, 2014, http://wapo.st/UcWdB5.
8.
Geneive Abdo, Mecca and the Main Street; Carol L. Anway, Daughters of Another Path (Lee’s Summit, MO: Yawna Publications, 1996); Debra L. Dirks, “Introduction: America and Islam in the 21st Century: Welcome to the Sisterhood,” in Islam Our Choice: Portraits of Modern American Muslim Women, ed. Debra L. Dirks and Stephanie Parlove (Beltsville, MD: Amana Publications, 2003), p. 1–16.
9.
“America’s Changing Religious Landscape,” Pew Research Center.
10.
Debra L. Dirks, “Introduction: America and Islam.”
11.
Reid Wilson “The second-largest religion in each state,” The Washington Post, June 4, 2014, http://wapo.st/2ow9OqL.
12.
Najwa Raouda, The Feminine Voice of Islam: Muslim Women in America (South Bend, IN: The Victoria Press, 2008).
13.
Mohamed Nimer, “Muslims in the American Body Politic.”
14.
Omar Khalidi, “Living as a Muslim in a Pluralistic Society and State: Theory and Experience,” in Muslims’ Place in the American Public Square: Hope, Fears and Aspirations, ed. Zahid H. Bukhari, Sulayman S. Nyang, Mumtaz Ahmad, and John L. Esposito (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2004), p. 38–72.
15.
Tony Gaskew, “Confronting Political Islam: An Ethnographic Representation of Muslim Americans in the Aftermath of 9/11” (doctoral dissertation, Nova Southeastern University, 2007); “America’s Changing Religious Landscape,” Pew Research Center.
16.
Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin, Framing Muslims.
17.
Tony Gaskew, “Confronting Political Islam.”
18.
Asma Gull Hasan, Why I am a Muslim: An American Odyssey (London: Element, 2004).
19.
Geneive Abdo, Mecca and the Main Street, p. 3.
20.
Geneive Abdo, Mecca and the Main Street; Tony Gaskew, “Confronting Political Islam.”
21.
Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin, Framing Muslims.
22.
Tony Gaskew, “Confronting Political Islam.”
23.
Ibid.
24.
Ibid., p. xiii
25.
Geneive Abdo, Mecca and the Main Street; Tony Gaskew, “Confronting Political Islam;” Lori Peek, Behind the Backlash.
26.
Tony Gaskew, “Confronting Political Islam.” p. 76.
27.
Brigitte L. Nacos and Oscar Torres-Reyna, “Framing Muslim-Americans Before and After 9/11,” in Framing Terrorism: The News Media, the Government and the Public, ed. Pippa Norris, Montague Kern, and Marion Just (New York, NY: Routledge, 203), p. 133–157.
28.
Leonie Huddy, Stanley Feldman, Gallya Lahav, and Charles Taber, “Fear and Terrorism: Psychological Reactions to 9/11,” in Framing Terrorism: The News Media, the Government and the Public, ed. Pippa Norris, Montague Kern, and Marion Just (New York, NY: Routledge, 203), p. 255–278.
29.
Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin, Framing Muslims, p. 49.
30.
Barry van Driel, Introduction to Confronting Islamophobia in Educational Practice, ed. Barry van Driel (Staffordshire, England: Trentham Books Limited, 2004).
31.
Nathan Lean, The Islamophobia Industry (London: Pluto Books, 2012).
32.
Geneive Abdo, Mecca and the Main Street.
33.
Ibid.
34.
Tony Gaskew, “Confronting Political Islam.”
35.
Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin, Framing Muslims.
36.
Tony Gaskew, “Confronting Political Islam.”
37.
Ibid.
38.
Ibid., p. 179.
39.
Geneive Abdo, Mecca and the Main Street, p. 114.
40.
Carol L. Anway, Daughters of Another Path.
41.
Nathan Lean, The Islamophobia Industry.
42.
Ibid.
43.
Geneive Abdo, Mecca and the Main Street.
44.
Ibid.
45.
Tony Gaskew, “Confronting Political Islam;” Lori Peek, Behind the Backlash.
46.
Tony Gaskew, “Confronting Political Islam.”
47.
Lori Peek, Behind the Backlash.
48.
Liam Stack, “American Muslims Under Attack,” The New York Times, February 15, 2016, http://nyti.ms/28PT2vo.
49.
Peter Moore, “Divide on Muslim Neighborhood Patrols but Majority Now Back Muslim Travel Ban,” YouGov, March 16, 2016, http://bit.ly/1VTHqIN.
50.
Ibid.
51.
Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin, Framing Muslims, p. 40.
52.
Captain Humayun Khan, United States Army, 1st Division 2000–2004, K.I.A. near Baqubah, Iraq (9/9/1976–6/8/2004), Posthumously awarded The Bronze Star Medal and The Purple Heart.
53.
“Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream,” Pew Research Center, May 22, 2007, http://pewrsr.ch/2aLExGR.
54.
Geneive Abdo, Mecca and the Main Street.
55.
Stefano Allievi, “The Shifting Significance of the Halal/Haram Frontier: Narratives on the Hijab and Other Issues,” in Women Embracing Islam: Gender and Conversion in the West, ed. Karin van Nieuwkerk (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2006), p. 120–149.
56.
Geneive Abdo, Mecca and the Main Street; Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, “The Quest for Peace in Submission;” Willy Jansen, “Conversion and Gender, Two Contested Concepts,” in Women Embracing Islam: Gender and Conversion in the West, ed. Karin van Nieuwkerk (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2006), p. IX–XII; Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin, Framing Muslims; Lori Peek, Behind the Backlash; Karin van Nieuwkerk, Introduction to Women Embracing Islam: Gender and Conversion in the West, ed. Karin van Nieuwkerk (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2006), p. 1–16; Monika Wohlrab-Sahr, “Symbolizing Distance: Conversion to Islam in Germany and the United States,” in Women Embracing Islam: Gender and Conversion in the West, ed. Karin van Nieuwkerk (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2006), p. 71–92.
57.
Geneive Abdo, Mecca and the Main Street.
58.
Monika Wohlrab-Sahr, “Symbolizing Distance.”
59.
Priya Malhotra, “Islam’s Female Converts,” in Religion in Politics and Society, ed. Michael Kelly and Lynn M. Messina (New York: H.W. Wilson, 2002), p. 172–175.
60.
Ibid.
61.
Reid Wilson, “The second-largest religion in each state,” The Washington Post, June 4, 2014, http://wapo.st/2ow9OqL.
62.
Precious R. Muhammad, “To be Young, Gifted, Black, American, Muslim, and Woman,” in Living Islam Outloud: American Muslim Women Speak, ed. Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2005), p. 37.
63.
Clark Moustakas, Phenomenological Research Methods (London: SAGE, 1994); Jerry W. Willis, Muktha Jost, and Rema Nilakanta, Foundations for Qualitative Research: Interpretive and Critical Approaches (London: SAGE, 2007).
64.
Orthodox Judaism is the only officially recognized movement in Israel for a variety of activities. While the conversion process for those converting via Conservative and Orthodox avenues, who performs (and who officially witnesses) the conversion appears to be the main point of contention. Because Orthodox Jews do not recognize the validity of non-Orthodox conversions this has become a source of relatively latent conflict both in Israel and elsewhere. Anticipating an increase in this conflict over who is really Jewish, my grandfather had fears that as an adult, I would not be recognized as Jewish and would not be entitled to the life cycle rituals within the faith.
65.
Geneive Abdo, Mecca and the Main Street; Muninder K Ahluwalia and Laura Pellettiere, “Sikh Men Post-9/11: Misidentification, Discrimination, and Coping,” Asian American Journal of Psychology 1, no 4 (2010); Ben K. Beiten and Katherine R. Allen, “Relisiance in Arab American Couples After September 11, 2001: A Systems Perspective,” Journal of Marital and Family Therapy 31, no 3 (2005); Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin, Framing Muslims; Lori Peek, Behind the Backlash.
66.
Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin, Framing Muslims.
67.
William W. Wilmot and Joyce L. Hocker, Interpersonal Conflict (7th ed.) (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2007), p. 9.
68.
Ibid.
69.
David W. Augsburger, Conflict Mediation Across Cultures (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1992); William W. Wilmot and Joyce L. Hocker, Interpersonal Conflict.
70.
David W. Augsburger, Conflict Mediation Across Cultures; William W. Wilmot and Joyce L. Hocker, Interpersonal Conflict.
71.
David W. Augsburger, Conflict Mediation Across Cultures, p. 29.
72.
Ibid., p. 47.
73.
Gregory H. Stanton, “The Eight Stages of Genocide,” Genocide Watch, March 16, 2016, http://bit.ly/1jEhWKd.

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Hollywood, Florida, USA
Amy Melissa Guimond

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Guimond, A.M. (2017). A Social Urgency. In: Converting to Islam. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54250-8_1

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54250-8_1
Published: 20 May 2017
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-54249-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-54250-8
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