Muslim-first identity responds to racialization but ethnic and class divisions persist

Evidence

Because there is a large Palestinian presence in Chicago, the Palestinian Muslims I interviewed socialized amongst themselves. The same was true for the Pakistani and Indian Muslim communities in both Chicago and the Dallas/Fort Worth area. While Pakistanis and Indians would mix, most of the people I talked to were married to someone who was also from their ethnic background. The “Muslim first” classification in some ways could be seen as a response to the racialization of a Muslim identity, but socioeconomic status and migratory patterns still matter in terms of whether or not South Asian and Arab Muslims are integrated. — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 720

Categorization

• QUESTION: Whether the Muslim-first identity claim differs by ethnicity and class speaks directly to the reader’s question about asymmetry in representation-withdrawal across constituencies.
• XREF: connects to: State surveillance policies push Muslims to strengthen a targeted identity — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 137; Ethnic endogamy persists among South Asian Muslims despite a shared Muslim identity — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 720

Related

• Ethnic endogamy persists among South Asian Muslims despite a shared Muslim identity (similarity 0.91)
• Ethnic segregation persists among Muslim Americans despite unified racialization (similarity 0.89)
• Socioeconomic status still shapes integration even under racialized Muslim identity (similarity 0.87)
• Muslim communities remain ethnically endogamous despite shared religious identity (similarity 0.85)
• Most US mosques are ethnically diverse yet dominated by a single ethnic group (similarity 0.81)
• Different racial classifications converge through shared religious identity (similarity 0.80)
• Muslim Americans move closer to the racial hierarchy’s bottom without reaching it (similarity 0.80)
• Muslim religious identity becomes a racial category through surveillance. (similarity 0.80)
• Muslim youth claim a Muslim-first identity partly to justify interreligious marriages (similarity 0.79)
• State surveillance policies intensify rather than suppress Muslim religious identity (similarity 0.79)
• The racialized Muslim category flexibly absorbs perceived Muslims across ethnicity, nationality, and religion. (similarity 0.79)
• Racial targeting makes mere category membership, not enmity, grounds for persecution (similarity 0.79)
• Arab and South Asian identities have been conflated with Islam (similarity 0.79)
• The War on Terror shifted Muslim Americans down the racial hierarchy away from whiteness (similarity 0.79)
• Muslim men can be racialized by ethnicity alone, not only by disclosed religion (similarity 0.79)