Diversity patriotism can be deployed to defend rather than assimilate marginalized groups

Evidence

Through the slogan, “I’m an American Muslim,” CAIR tries to break down the constructed opposition between American and Muslim, to include Muslims in the imagining of America, and to draw a parallel between the diversity of America and the diversity within Islam. Through the language of diversity, CAIR’s PSA emphasizes the compatibility between Americans and Muslims and the possibility of a patriotic American Muslim identity. In other words, it presents another version of diversity patriotism. Rather than the ambiguous assimilative diversity of the Ad Council, CAIR articulates a different version of diversity patriotism: it accentuates similarities to “American values” through the figure of “the good Muslim.” The advertisements assert that “American” and “Muslim” are compatible by articulating a number of discourses, including a Muslim legacy of military service to the U.S. nation, to replace the notion that Muslims are violent fanatics who hate the United States. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1175

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘diversity patriotism’ as a frame and distinguishes CAIR’s ‘good Muslim’ version from the Ad Council’s assimilative version.
• XREF: connects to: Faithful patriotism seeks the flourishing of all residents, not national glory — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 93