Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T06:56:11.363Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

American Muslim Political Participation: Between Diversity and Cohesion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2019

Youssef Chouhoud Open the ORCID record for Youssef Chouhoud [Opens in a new window] ,
Karam Dana  and
Matt Barreto
Youssef Chouhoud*
Affiliation:
Christopher Newport University
Karam Dana
Affiliation:
University of Washington
Matt Barreto
Affiliation:
University of California
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Youssef Chouhoud, Christopher Newport University, Newport News, VA, USA. E-mail: youssef.chouhoud@cnu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

American Muslims’ increased societal salience has led to greater scrutiny of their political and social attitudes. Yet, systematic analyses of this population remain rare and tend to aggregate findings at a level that masks the community's diverse backgrounds and experiences. As a partial corrective, our paper provides a comprehensive demographic analysis of American Muslim political participation. Our conclusions, first, complement previous efforts to elaborate the influence of minority status on the core determinants of political participation. Second, they highlight the differential impact of these determinants within key American Muslim demographic subgroups, revealing the moderating effects of denomination, racial or ethnic background, and gender. As scholars and practitioners seek to better understand Muslims in America, our research suggests that there are myriad circumstances when this community's presumed cohesion gives way to meaningfully diverse perspectives and behaviors.

Type
Symposium: Dialogue on Muslim American Sociopolitical Life
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , December 2019 , pp. 736 - 765
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers whose comments have greatly improved this manuscript.

References

REFERENCES

Arab American Institute. 2002. Profiling and Pride: Arab American Attitudes and Behavior Since September 11. Washington, DC: Arab American Institute Foundation.Google Scholar
Arvizu, John R. and Garcia, F. Chris. 1996. “Latino Voting Participation: Explaining and Differentiating Latino Voting Turnout.” Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 18(2):104–128.Google Scholar
Austin, Sharon D. Wright, Middleton, Richard T., and Yon, Rachel. 2012. “The Effect of Racial Group Consciousness on the Political Participation of African Americans and Black Ethnics in Miami-Dade County, Florida.” Political Research Quarterly 65(3):629–641.Google Scholar
Ayers, John W. and Hofstetter, C. Richard. 2008. “American Muslim Political Participation Following 9/11: Religious Belief, Political Resources, Social Structures, and Political Awareness.” Politics and Religion 1(01):3–26.Google Scholar
Barreto, Matt A. 2010. Ethnic Cues: The Role of Shared Ethnicity in Latino Political Participation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Barreto, Matt A., Masuoka, Natalie, and Sanchez, Gabriel R.. 2008. “Religiosity, Discrimination and Group Identity Among Muslim Americans.” In Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting, San Diego.Google Scholar
Barreto, Matt A. and Segura, Gary M.. 2014. Latino America: How America's Most Dynamic Population Is Poised to Transform the Politics of the Nation. New York: PublicAffairs.Google Scholar
Barreto, Matt and Dana, Karam. 2019. “Best practices for gathering public opinion data among Muslim Americans.” Forthcoming in Understanding Muslim Political Life in America, eds. Nazita, Lajevardi and Calfano, Brian. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Basatneh, Alaa. 2016. “Three Things Your Muslim Friends Wish You Knew about Eid Al-Fitr.” Splinter. https://splinternews.com/three-things-your-muslim-friends-wish-you-knew-about-ei-1793860029 (Accessed on December 13, 2018).Google Scholar
Berry, Justin, Chouhoud, Youssef, and Junn, Jane. 2018. “Reaching Beyond Low-Hanging Fruit: Surveying Low Incidence Populations.” In Oxford Handbook of Polling and Polling Methods, pp. 181–206. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence and Gilliam, Franklin D.. 1990. “Race, Sociopolitical Participation, and Black Empowerment.” The American Political Science Review 84(2):377–393.Google Scholar
Brown, Heather, Guskin, Emily, and Mitchell, Amy. 2012. “Arab-American Population Growth.” Pew Research Center's Journalism Project. http://www.journalism.org/2012/11/28/arabamerican-population-growth/ (Accessed on May 31, 2017).Google Scholar
Calhoun-Brown, Allison. 1996. “African American Churches and Political Mobilization: The Psychological Impact of Organizational Resources.” The Journal of Politics 58(4):935–953.Google Scholar
Cameron, A. Colin and Trivedi, Pravin K.. 2013. Regression Analysis of Count Data. 2nd ed. Cambridge, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, Angus, Converse, Philip E., Miller, Warren E., and Stokes, Donald E.. 1960. The American Voter. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Chong, Dennis and Kim, Dukhong. 2006. “The Experiences and Effects of Economic Status among Racial and Ethnic Minorities.” The American Political Science Review 100(3):335–351.Google Scholar
Chong, Dennis and Rogers, Reuel. 2005. “Racial Solidarity and Political Participation.” Political Behavior 27(4):347–374.Google Scholar
Chouhoud, Youssef. 2011. “(Muslim) American Exceptionalism: Contextualizing Religiosity among Young Muslims in America.” Master's Thesis. Lehigh University.Google Scholar
Citrin, Jack and Highton, Benjamin. 2002. How Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration Shape the California Electorate. Public Policy Institute of California. http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=373 (Accessed on June 18, 2016).Google Scholar
Coen, Alise. 2017. “Securitization, Normalization, and Representations of Islam in Senate Discourse.” Politics and Religion 10(1):111–136.Google Scholar
Contractor, Cyrus Ali. 2011. “The Dearborn Effect: A Comparison of the Political Dispositions of Shi'a and Sunni Muslims in the United States.” Politics and Religion 4(01):154–167.Google Scholar
Dana, Karam, Barreto, Matt A., and Oskooii, Kassra A.R.. 2011. “Mosques as American Institutions: Mosque Attendance, Religiosity and Integration Into the Political System among American Muslims.” Religions 2(4):504–524.Google Scholar
Davis, Darren W. 1997. “The Direction of Race of Interviewer Effects among African-Americans: Donning the Black Mask.” American Journal of Political Science 41(1):309–322.Google Scholar
Davis, Darren W. 2007. Negative Liberty: Public Opinion and the Terrorist Attacks on America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Davis, Darren W. and Silver, Brian D.. 2004. “Civil Liberties vs. Security: Public Opinion in the Context of the Terrorist Attacks on America.” American Journal of Political Science 48(1):28–46.Google Scholar
Dawson, Michael C. 1994. Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African-American Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dawson, Michael C., Brown, R.E., and Allen, R.L.. 1990. “Racial Belief System, Religious Guidance, and African-American Political Participation.” National Political Science Review 2:22–44.Google Scholar
Djupe, Paul and Calfano, Brian R.. 2012. “American Muslim Investment in Civil Society Political Discussion, Disagreement, and Tolerance.” Political Research Quarterly 65(3):516–528.Google Scholar
Donno, Daniela and Russett, Bruce. 2004. “Islam, Authoritarianism, and Female Empowerment: What Are the Linkages?” World Politics 56(04):582–607.Google Scholar
Driskell, Robyn, Embry, Elizabeth, and Lyon, Larry. 2008. “Faith and Politics: The Influence of Religious Beliefs on Political Participation.” Social Science Quarterly 89(2):294–314.Google Scholar
Fish, M. Steven. 2011. Are Muslims Distinctive?: A Look at the Evidence. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fisher, Dana. 2014. “Studying Large-Scale Protest: Understanding Mobilization and the Participation at the People's Climate March.” http://www.drfisher.umd.edu/PCM_PreliminaryResults.pdf. Accessed January 20, 2019.Google Scholar
Gay, Claudine and Tate, Katherine. 1998. “Doubly Bound: The Impact of Gender and Race on the Politics of Black Women.” Political Psychology 19(1):169–184.Google Scholar
Gender Differences in Voter Turnout. 2015. Rutgers, New Jersey: Center for American Women and Politics. http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/resources/genderdiff.pdf.Google Scholar
Gimpel, James G., Lay, J. Celeste, and Schuknecht, Jason E.. 2003. Cultivating Democracy: Civic Environments and Political Socialization in America. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Graham, David A. 2015. “How the Republican Party Won and Then Lost the Muslim Vote.” The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/republicans-muslim-vote-george-w-bush-donald-trump/419481/ (Accessed on October 13, 2018).Google Scholar
Green, Donald, Palmquist, Bradley, and Schickler, Eric. 2002. Partisan Hearts and Minds. New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hajnal, Zoltan L. and Lee, Taeku. 2011. Why Americans Don't Join the Party: Race, Immigration, and the Failure (of Political Parties) to Engage the Electorate. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Harris, Fredrick C. 1994. “Something Within: Religion as a Mobilizer of African-American Political Activism.” The Journal of Politics 56(1):42–68.Google Scholar
Holsinger, Jennifer Leila. 2009. Residential Patterns of Arab Americans: Race, Ethnicity, and Spatial Assimilation. El Paso: LFB Scholarly Publishing.Google Scholar
Huddy, Leonie, Feldman, Stanley, Taber, Charles, and Lahav, Gallya. 2005. “Threat, Anxiety, and Support of Antiterrorism Policies.” American Journal of Political Science 49(3):593–608.Google Scholar
Jacoby, William G. 2010. “The American Voter.” In The Oxford Handbook of American Elections and Political Behavior, ed. Leighley, Jan E.. New York: Oxford University Press, 262–277.Google Scholar
Jalalzai, Farida. 2009. “The Politics of Muslims in America.” Politics and Religion 2(Special Issue 02):163–199.Google Scholar
Jamal, Amaney. 2005. “The Political Participation and Engagement of Muslim Americans Mosque Involvement and Group Consciousness.” American Politics Research 33(4):521–544.Google Scholar
Jamal, Amaney and Langohr, Vickie. 2009. “Moving beyond Democracy: What Causes Variations in the Level of Gender Equality across Arab States?” Ithaca, NY. Presented at the Middle East Politics Working Group Workshop.Google Scholar
Johnson, Jenna and Hauslohner, Abigail. 2017. “ ‘I Think Islam Hates Us’: A Timeline of Trump's Comments about Islam and Muslims.” Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/20/i-think-islam-hates-us-a-timeline-of-trumps-comments-about-islam-and-muslims/ (Accessed on March 11, 2018).Google Scholar
Jones-Correa, Michael A. and Leal, David L.. 2001. “Political Participation: Does Religion Matter?” Political Research Quarterly 54(4):751–770.Google Scholar
Junn, Jane. 1999. “Participation in Liberal Democracy: The Political Assimilation of Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities in the United States.” American Behavioral Scientist 42(9):1417–1438.Google Scholar
Junn, Jane, and Masuoka, Natalie. 2008. “Asian American Identity: Shared Racial Status and Political Context.” Perspectives on Politics 6(4):729–740.Google Scholar
Kalkan, Kerem Ozan, Layman, Geoffrey C., and Uslaner, Eric M.. 2009. “ ‘Bands of Others’? Attitudes Toward Muslims in Contemporary American Society.” The Journal of Politics 71(03):847–862.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R. and Sears, David. 1985. “Public Opinion and Political Actions.” In The Handbook of Social Psychology, eds. Daniel, Gilbert and Lindzey, Gardner. New York: Random House, 659–741.Google Scholar
Krysan, Maria. 1998. “Privacy and the Expression of White Racial Attitudes: A Comparison Across Three Contexts.” Public Opinion Quarterly 62(4):506–544.Google Scholar
Krysan, Maria and Couper, Mick P.. 2003. “Race in the Live and the Virtual Interview: Racial Deference, Social Desirability, and Activation Effects in Attitude Surveys.” Social Psychology Quarterly 66(4):364–383.Google Scholar
Lajevardi, Nazita. 2016. “The Media Matters: Muslim American Portrayals and the Effects on Mass Attitudes.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, PA.Google Scholar
Leighley, Jan E. and Vedlitz, Arnold. 1999. “Race, Ethnicity, and Political Participation: Competing Models and Contrasting Explanations.” The Journal of Politics 61(4):1092–1114.Google Scholar
Lien, Pei-te. 1994. “Ethnicity and Political Participation: A Comparison Between Asian and Mexican Americans.” Political Behavior 16(2):237–264.Google Scholar
Lien, Pei-te. 1997. The Political Participation of Asian Americans: Voting Behavior in Southern California. Fresno: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Lien, Pei-te, Conway, M. Margaret, and Wong, Janelle. 2004. The Politics of Asian Americans: Diversity and Community. 1st ed. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin. 1960. Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics. Garden City: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Logan, John R., Darrah, Jennifer, and Oh, Sookhee. 2012. “The Impact of Race and Ethnicity, Immigration, and Political Context on Participation in American Electoral Politics.” Social Forces 90(3): 993–1022.Google Scholar
Masuoka, Natalie and Junn, Jane. 2013. The Politics of Belonging: Race, Public Opinion, and Immigration. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Arthur H., Gurin, Patricia, Gurin, Gerald, and Malanchuk, Oksana. 1981. “Group Consciousness and Political Participation.” American Journal of Political Science 25(3):494–511.Google Scholar
Mogahed, Dalia and Chouhoud, Youssef. 2017. American Muslim Poll 2017: Muslims at the Crossroads. Washington, DC: Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.Google Scholar
Nie, Norman H., Junn, Jane, and Stehlik-Barry, Kenneth. 1995. Education and Democratic Citizenship in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Oskooii, Kassra A.R. 2015. “How Discrimination Impacts Sociopolitical Behavior: A Multidimensional Perspective.” Political Psychology 37(5):613–640.Google Scholar
Patterson, Dennis, Gasim, Gamal, and Choi, Jangsup. 2011. “Identity, Attitudes, and the Voting Behavior of Mosque-Attending Muslim-Americans in the 2000 and 2004 Presidential Elections.” Politics and Religion 4(02):289–311.Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. 2011a. Muslim Americans: No Signs of Growth in Alienation or Support for Extremism; Mainstream and Moderate Attitudes. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. 2011b. “Religion in the News: Islam Was No. 1 Topic in 2010.” Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. http://www.pewforum.org/2011/02/24/religion-in-the-news-islam-was-no-1-topic-in-2010/ (Accessed on December 17, 2016).Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. 2012. The Rise of Asian Americans. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D. 2001. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. 1st ed. New York: Touchstone Books by Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Ramakrishnan, S. 2006. Democracy in Immigrant America: Changing Demographics and Political Participation. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Raphelson, Samantha. 2018. “Muslim Americans Running For Office In Highest Numbers Since 2001.” NPR.org. https://www.npr.org/2018/07/18/630132952/muslim-americans-running-for-office-in-highest-numbers-since-2001 (Accessed on October 13, 2018).Google Scholar
Read, Jen'nan. 2006. American Arabs and Political Participation. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.Google Scholar
Read, Jen'nan. 2015. “Gender, Religious Identity, and Civic Engagement among Arab Muslims in the United States.” Sociology of Religion 76(1):30–48.Google Scholar
SAALT. 2014. Under Suspicion, Under Attack. Takoma Park, MD: South Asian Americans Leading Together.Google Scholar
Sanchez, Gabriel R. 2006. “The Role of Group Consciousness in Latino Public Opinion.” Political Research Quarterly 59(3):435–446.Google Scholar
Sanchez, Gabriel R. and Masuoka, Natalie. 2010. “Brown-Utility Heuristic? The Presence and Contributing Factors of Latino Linked Fate.” Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 32(4):519–531.Google Scholar
Schoettmer, Patrick. 2015. “Mobilization and the Masjid: Muslim Political Engagement in Post-9/11 America.” Politics, Groups, and Identities 3(2):255–273.Google Scholar
Sheskin, Ira M. and Hartman, Harriet. 2015. “Denominational Variations Across American Jewish Communities.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 54(2):205–221.Google Scholar
Sides, John and Gross, Kimberly. 2013. “Stereotypes of Muslims and Support for the War on Terror.” The Journal of Politics 75(03):583–598.Google Scholar
Smith, Tom W. 2002. “Review: The Muslim Population of the United States: The Methodology of Estimates.” The Public Opinion Quarterly 66(3):404–417.Google Scholar
Stokes, Atiya Kai. 2003. “Latino Group Consciousness and Political Participation.” American Politics Research 31(4):361–378.Google Scholar
Takim, Liyakat. 2009. Shi'ism in America. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Tapp, Alan and Clowes, Jeff. 2002. “From ‘Carefree Casuals’ to ‘Professional Wanderers’: Segmentation Possibilities for Football Supporters.” European Journal of Marketing 36(11/12):1248–1269.Google Scholar
Tate, Katherine. 1991. “Black Political Participation in the 1984 and 1988 Presidential Elections.” The American Political Science Review 85(4):1159–1176.Google Scholar
Tocqueville, Alexis de. 1835. Democracy in America. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Tourangeau, Roger and Yan, Ting. 2007. “Sensitive Questions in Surveys.” Psychological Bulletin 133(5):859–883.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney and Nie, Norman. 1972. Participation in America: Political Democracy and Social Equality. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and Brady, Henry. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Abridged edition. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay Lehman, Brady, Henry, and Nie, Norman H.. 1993. “Race, Ethnicity and Political Resources: Participation in the United States.” British Journal of Political Science 23(4):453–497.Google Scholar
Verkuyten, Maykel, Maliepaard, Mieke, Martinovic, Borja, and Khoudja, Yassine. 2014. “Political Tolerance among Muslim Minorities in Western Europe: The Role of Denomination and Religious and Host National Identification.” Politics and Religion 7(02):265–286.Google Scholar
Walgrave, Stefaan and Verhulst, Joris. 2011. “Selection and Response Bias in Protest Surveys.” Mobilization: An International Quarterly 16(2):203–222.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1930. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Wolfinger, Raymond E. and Rosenstone, Steven J.. 1980. Who Votes? Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Wong, Janelle, Ramakrishnan, S. Karthick, Lee, Taeku, and Junn, Jane. 2011. Asian American Political Participation: Emerging Constituents and Their Political Identities. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Chouhoud et al. supplementary material

Tables SA-SJ

Download Chouhoud et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 519.9 KB