Religion and Politics

How the War on Terror Created the “Muslim American”

For The Nation, Mustafa Bayoumi writes that 9/11 changed the role of Muslim Americans. “Overnight, we ‘Muslim Americans’ went from being just another of the United States’ multitudinous religious groups to occupying a new and highly targeted administrative category—one in which we are now collectively seen as a threat, regardless of our individual actions or beliefs, as if danger is a dominant gene passed down to us by our Muslim ancestors,” he writes. He maintains, however, that an overlooked impact of 9/11 on the Muslim American community has been the encouragement of political action and progressive values within the community.

Read at The Nation

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