American Muslims were a model minority before the September 11 attacks

Evidence

Before the September 11 attacks, Muslims might have been described as a ‘model minority’ with above average levels of education and income. They were so inconspicuous that they were routinely confused with Latinos. Needless to say, the September 11 attacks changed everything. — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 598

Categorization

• XREF: Contradicts the familiar present-day framing of Muslims as perpetual outsiders; connects to the model-minority literature in the reader’s cluster. — connects to: Post-war Middle East events made violence central to US Muslim depictions — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 521; Post-1965 immigrants could practice Islam openly without concealment — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 199; Religious identity replaced ethnicity as the marker making Muslim Americans seen as anti-American (+3 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 598

Related

• Large minorities of Americans hold unfavorable views of Islam and Muslims (similarity 0.82)
• Post-1965 immigrants could practice Islam openly without concealment (similarity 0.82)
• An ethnic minority identity invites questions while a Muslim identity invites hostile expulsion (similarity 0.81)
• Muslim America’s narrative is rooted in blackness, not Arab identity (similarity 0.81)
• Muslim American communities joined progressive movements only after being targeted (similarity 0.79)
• American Muslims are mainstreaming faster than the general public (similarity 0.79)
• Fifty-three percent of Americans hold an unfavorable opinion of Islam (similarity 0.79)
• Americans explain minority terror via religion despite the tiny perpetrator share (similarity 0.79)
• US immigrant Muslim status fluctuated with international crises involving their home countries (similarity 0.79)
• Anti-Muslim prejudice now frames Muslims as cultural rather than security threats. (similarity 0.79)
• Arabs are a minority of American Muslims and mostly Christian (similarity 0.79)
• Fear of Arab attackers inflates support for security measures targeting minorities. (similarity 0.79)
• Anti-Muslim sentiment is shifting from terror fear to cultural-threat framing (similarity 0.79)
• The ‘Muslims are the new blacks’ claim erases black Muslims’ longstanding existence. (similarity 0.79)
• Fewer than one in a million Western Muslims per year turned to political violence (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Religious identity replaced ethnicity as the marker making Muslim Americans seen as anti-American #qualifies (0.60)
• Muslim citizenship in America is negated by religious identity after crises #complicates (0.60) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 340
• Anti-Muslim crisis periods simultaneously empower and marginalize Arab American communities #qualifies (0.55)
• Most American Muslims condemn extremism and are satisfied with life in America #corroborates (0.55)