The Role of Race in Two Muslim Communities in Cleveland

Download or read book The Role of Race in Two Muslim Communities in Cleveland written by Rafiqur Rahman and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation is about race and religion. These two categories are critical to discerning from a social science perspective how race, religion, identity, culture and membership inform each other and, if so, how is it then deployed to marginalize and/or oppress others within America. Specifically, my field research study proposes to understand how Muslim American identity and membership is racially constructed, categorized and regulated within Masjid BilaÌ4l and the IslaÌ4mic Center of Cleveland; two demographically dissimilar Cleveland (OH) mosques with equally disparate ethnic communities (i.e., Black and non-Black). In other words, how does race-making (i.e., racialization) build, shape and organize the social science structure and context of what it means to be a Muslim within America?Empirically, I track how identity and membership is socioculturally constructed, categorized and subsequently recognized within the Muslim American community through the dissemination of a 41-question opinion poll/questionnaire and an 18- question qualitative interview instrument. The religious studies and social science intent of my field survey is to disentangle the gordian knot of race and religion by revealing the imbricate connections between ethnicity, identity, culture, stigmatization and membership through an ethnographic oriented interrogation of Muslim American understandings/characterizations of IslaÌ4m.My survey of the two demographically dissimilar houses of IslaÌ4mic worship will compare and contrast the Muslim American experience towards IslaÌ4m by conducting 22 in-depth interviews between the two Muslim American communities utilizing a thick description method, Geertzian practice and approach. I will also employ a Critical Race Theory lens to illumine the complex interchange between how race not only operates as a point-of-departure to differentiate Muslim American individuals/communities but also as a grouping destination.