American Muslim Political Participation: Between Diversity and Cohesion

Abstract

American Muslims’ increased societal salience has led to greater scrutiny of their political and social attitudes. Yet, systematic analyses of this population remain rare and tend to aggregate findings at a level that masks the community's diverse backgrounds and experiences. As a partial corrective, our paper provides a comprehensive demographic analysis of American Muslim political participation. Our conclusions, first, complement previous efforts to elaborate the influence of minority status on the core determinants of political participation. Second, they highlight the differential impact of these determinants within key American Muslim demographic subgroups, revealing the moderating effects of denomination, racial or ethnic background, and gender. As scholars and practitioners seek to better understand Muslims in America, our research suggests that there are myriad circumstances when this community's presumed cohesion gives way to meaningfully diverse perspectives and behaviors.

Muslim American Double Consciousness

“…Some of these organizations include the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Muslim American Society (MAS), and Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA). These organizations and their members are also active in allying with progressive causes such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the Women's March (Chouhoud et al, 2019;Mogahed and Chouhoud, 2017). In fact, the findings of a study conducted by Youssef Chouhoud and colleagues ( 2019) complement previous research suggesting that minority status serves as one of the "core determinants of political participation" (p. 736).…”

Stigma Consciousness and American Identity: The Case of Muslims in the United States

“…Because being American is synonymous with whiteness, it is interesting to see how Muslims distance themselves from that identity when they have higher levels of stigma consciousness. Much of the literature on boundary negotiation for Muslims focuses on the effect it has on their attachment to a Muslim group identity (Chouhoud, Dana, and Barreto 2019;Jamal 2005). The contours of how this affects other identities-namely, attachment to American identityhave received minimal attention.…”

A Political Profile of U.S. Pagans

“…For example, Pagans' comparatively liberal attitudes about women's rights and high voting rates could both be driven by women's overrepresentation within the religion. Further understanding Pagans' political attitudes and behavior responds to calls for more research on whether new and individualized faith traditions produce unified religious identities (Schoettmer 2015; Chouhoud, Dana, and Barreto 2019) and whether these identities translate into common political attitudes and engagement. Beyond a more comprehensive methodological accounting of Pagans' political attitudes and behaviors, Pagans' position as a decentralized and highly stigmatized religion places them in a unique and understudied relationship with political institutions.…”