Sponsor
Portland State University. Department of Sociology
First Advisor
Alex Stepick
Date of Publication
Spring 7-21-2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (M.S.) in Sociology
Department
Sociology
Language
English
Subjects
Muslims -- United States -- Social conditions, Children of immigrants -- United States -- Social conditions, Political culture -- United States, September 11 2001 Terrorist Attacks -- Influence, Identity (Psychology) -- Religious aspects
DOI
10.15760/etd.5650
Physical Description
1 online resource (vi, 141 pages)
Abstract
The World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001 fundamentally transformed the context of reception for Muslim immigrants in the U.S., shifting it from neutral to negative while also brightening previously blurred boundaries between established residents and the Muslim minority. This study explores how second-generation Muslim immigrants have experienced and reacted to post-9/11 contexts of reception. It is based on an analysis of ten semi-structured in-depth interviews that were conducted throughout the Portland Metropolitan Area from January to April of 2016. It finds experiences of discrimination to be primarily affected by two factors: public institutions and gender. It also finds, furthermore, that research participants react to negative post-9/11 contexts of reception by redrawing bright boundaries to include themselves within the American mainstream. Because Islam itself has become politicized within post-9/11 contexts of reception, this study also explores how second-generation Muslim immigrants construct and maintain religious meaning as a form of political identity. It finds that research participants unilaterally construct a Localized Islam that is dynamic and variable in its response to familial and social pressures. The thesis concludes by putting forward a typology outlining its four primary forms of localization within contemporary social and political environments.
Rights
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Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/21230
Recommended Citation
Smith, Shahriyar, "Contexts of Reception and Constructions of Islam: Second Generation Muslim Immigrants in Post-9/11 America" (2017). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 3766.
https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.5650