Muslim American attitudes toward homosexuality are liberalizing over time

Evidence

Another trend that survey data capture is the attitude Muslims have on same sex marriage. Homonationalism describes the process where Muslims are cast as inherently homophobic, which is used to align LGBTQ issues into a nationalistic agenda that perpetuates racist attitudes toward Muslims (Puar 2007). But Muslims’ ideas on same sex are becoming more progressive over time. According to the Pew Research Center (2015), in 2007, 38 percent of Muslim respondents felt “homosexuality should be accepted” compared to 45 percent in 2014. While attitudes toward same sex relationships are not as positive as the rest of the U.S. population (33 percent did not think same sex relationships should be accepted), it does show a liberal trend occurring in the Muslim American population. This trend contradicts the stereotype that Muslim values are incompatible with Western values. This shift in attitudes may be the result of a Muslim American population recognizing their own marginalized status in the United States as a result of policies that have restricted their civil liberties. Research shows that more than half of Muslims surveyed believe that their lives have become more difficult since 9/11. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 111

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines homonationalism — Muslims cast as inherently homophobic to feed a nationalistic agenda that perpetuates racism against them.
• XREF: The claim that Muslim recognition of their own marginalization drives liberalization connects to Parable of the Sower and to the reader’s map of how surveillance produces a racialized sense of permanent suspecthood. — connects to: American views on homosexuality flipped within forty-five years — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 760