Poverty makes Muslim Americans more vulnerable to state surveillance and backlash

Evidence

Statistics show that Muslim Americans as a standalone faith group are comparatively poorer than the broader American polity, and according to a number of studies, poorer than any other faith group. This doesn’t just challenge the myth that Muslim Americans are overwhelmingly wealthy and upwardly mobile; it shatters it to pieces. And poverty for Muslim Americans comes with a range of other concerns and dangers, including those linked to how poverty enhances vulnerability to private backlash and state surveillance. The reality of pervasive poverty among Muslim Americans, particularly in immigrant-heavy communities, leads to their disproportionate targeting and victimization by war-on-terror policies, and, most frequently and furiously, CVE policing. It is trying to be poor in the United States, but exponentially more trying to be poor and victimized by the war on terror. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 389

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 389
• XREF: connects to: Secrecy about surveillance lists creates chronic uncertainty and vulnerability for Muslim citizens — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 276; Class privilege does not shield Muslim Americans from racialized surveillance; The surveillance gaze denies Muslim Americans the psychological privileges of citizenship (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Class privilege does not shield Muslim Americans from racialized surveillance #qualifies (0.70)
• Surveillance targets Muslim Americans based on religious identity regardless of citizenship #qualifies (0.60) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 104
• Secrecy about surveillance lists creates chronic uncertainty and vulnerability for Muslim citizens #complicates (0.50) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 276
• The surveillance gaze denies Muslim Americans the psychological privileges of citizenship #expands (0.50)
• State surveillance escalates with how visibly Muslim a person is #expands (0.50) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 380
• Less state surveillance gives Muslim women more agency but costly emotional labor #qualifies (0.50)
• Fear of state detention and deportation corrodes Muslim Americans’ sense of citizenship #expands (0.50)
• Citizenship itself is racialized, protecting some citizens while criminalizing Muslim Americans. #expands (0.50)
• Muslims in the United States endure discrimination in their everyday lives #expands (0.40) — Evelyn Alsultany, Antisemitism and Islamophobia The…, 32
• Black American Muslims suffer compounded vulnerability from converging anti-Black racism and Islamophobia #expands (0.40) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 460
• Trump’s election raised the harm risk for visibly Muslim Americans #expands (0.40) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 539
• The watchlist database skews heavily toward Arab and Muslim Americans. #expands (0.40) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 217