Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 Muslims living in the West have found their loyalties to their states questioned and have endured greatly increased suspicion and occasionally outright hostility. Their very presence has become a political issue. Not only have their legal rights as citizens been questioned but their collective ability and willingness to integrate into various Western societies is also being doubted. This paper analyzes this state of affairs, the response to the loyalty question by intellectuals operating within Islamic theological traditions, and attempts by various arts organizations to illustrate more sympathetic treatments of Islamic culture to Western audiences. While intellectual rejoinders and arts diplomacy have their place in this debate, neither provides vehicles for illustrating the complex ways that Muslim minorities actually live their lives. The essay concludes by examining research on empathy as a model for dispelling prejudice and argues for more empathetic accounts in the public sphere representing the varieties of Muslim minority life; for such representations could also expand the notions of what citizenship means and the ways it is practiced in Western liberal democracies today.

At a town hall meeting held during the 2008 presidential race in the United States, Republican candidate John McCain was repeatedly harangued by his audience for the respect he had been showing Democratic candidate Barack Obama. Amid cries of people yelling “liar” and “terrorist” in reference to Obama, one man bluntly told McCain that he's “scared” of an Obama presidency. Another McCain supporter, Gayle Quinnel, offered her trepidations, “I can't trust Obama,” she said. (“I got ya,” McCain replied.) “I have read about him, and he's not, he's not … he's an Arab.” McCain began shaking his head. “No ma'am. No ma'am,” he replied. “He's a decent family man, [a]citizen.”