The racialization of Arab panethnic identity: exploring students’ ingroup and outgroup social positionings

“We are America’s Number One Enemy”: The Experiences of Middle Eastern Muslim Men College Students Navigating Higher Education in the United States

“…While Muslim communities experience Islamophobia and xenophobia, they "have a youthful population with the potential to change the world for the better if educated, enabled, and better understood" by higher education stakeholders (Bhatti, 2011, p. 95). While scholars advocate that it is important to understand Middle Eastern Muslim students who attend college in the U.S. to promote their success and cultivate their possible positive impact within higher education (Maldonado & Epstein, 2015); however, Middle Eastern Muslim students often encounter discriminatory practices against them and their religious beliefs (Jones, 2017).…”

“…The historical Western-biased views of Islam and the Arab world, which were a cause and result of imperialism (Jones, 2017;Said, 1979), expanded significantly and rapidly during the Iranian revolution and dominated the U.S. media (Jackson, 2010;Karim & Gasher, 2002) to the point that merited the emergence of the term islamophobia (Gordon & Rosenberg, 1989;Jones, 2017). After September 11, 2001, a nation-shattering event, a bifurcation of U.S. history was created, splitting into "Pre-9/11" and "Post-9/11."…”

“…Opinions regarding Islam and Muslim communities became increasingly negative following 9/11 (Jackson, 2010;Jones, 2017;Ogan et al, 2014). According to Abu-Ras and Suarez (2009), 9/11 and the growing Muslim population within the U.S. led to a 1,700% increase in hate crimes against Arab and Muslim communities and people who were stereotyped as Arabs.…”

“…This hostility has notably been directed toward those of the Islamic religion and Middle Eastern descent (Zakaria, 2015). While followers of Islam, or Muslims, are the second largest religion and the fastest growing across the globe, and significantly, a growing immigrant group in the U.S. (approximately 1.1% of the U.S. population), they experience religious discrimination and racism from others of the dominant group (Jones, 2017;Lipka, 2017). The hostility towards the growing Muslim population has the potential to lead to psychological challenges that "interfere with [young Muslims'] healthy, emotional development and ethnic identity integration" (Maldonado & Epstein, 2015, p. 85).…”

“…Islamophobia intensified partly due to the negative media portrayal of Muslim people post the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (Ali, 2019;Ogan et al, 2014;Uddin et al, 2022). The association of terrorism with Islam and Muslim communities in the "war on terror" interventions, the distortion of facts by dominant and prejudiced media, and the rhetoric of hate-mongering, which dominated the presidential election of 2016, have all contributed to how society perceives Muslim communities and added to the historical Western biased views of Islam and the Arab world (Jones, 2017;Said, 1979). Muslim students are enduring the compounded effects of preconceived notions and assumptions exaggerated by these situations that have occurred during the past decades.…”