Divergent perceptions of Muslim Americans on being stereotyped as terrorists

ABSTRACT

Being labeled as terrorists has been one of the primary negative stereotypes used against Muslims in the USA. Muslim Americans are very diverse coming from different ethnic, historical, and cultural backgrounds. They belong to various religious schools of thought and practice, as well as branches of Islam. Differences among this diverse group stipulate different perceptions of being stereotyped as terrorists, which was at large ignored by previous research. I use data from the 2011 Pew Religion and Public Life Survey (N = 806), to analyze differences among various Muslim American racial/ethnic groups in perceptions of being stereotyped as terrorists. Black, Asian, and Hispanic Muslims report a few times lower odds of being viewed as terrorists than white Muslims (respondents having origins primarily in the Middle East or North Africa). Compared to conservatives, moderates and liberal Muslims are more likely to name ‘viewed as terrorists’ among the most important problem facing Muslims living in the USA today. Among acculturation and socio-demographic correlates, nativity was associated with being viewed as terrorists. Using the Muslim case, the study identifies different positions in perceptions of stereotypes and challenges the stereotypical approach of constructing a population identity as homogeneous.

KEYWORDS:

• Muslim stereotypes
• Muslim Americans
• terrorism
• perceptions
• race and ethnicity

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Deborah Carr, Lauren Krivo, Richard Williams, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and useful suggestions. An earlier version of the paper was presented at the 90th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Philadelphia, PA, 27 February–1 March 2020.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The recently released Pew 2017 survey has the same key outcome measure of interest showing a similar trend. There was no change in perceptions of Muslims Americans on being viewed terrorists during these two time periods (9.52% in 2011 vs 9.78% in 2017). Yet, the 2017 Pew survey added two more categories (‘Trump’s attitudes/policies toward Muslims’ and ‘Unclear’) to the question (the most important problems facing Muslims living in the USA today). Additionally, the 2017 Pew survey administered this question only to less than half of its respondents (N = 507). Due to the reduction of the total number of observations by more than in half, many variables lose statistical significance and there is not enough statistical power to run analysis on five Muslims racial/ethnic groups.

2 In the first response, the ‘viewed as terrorists’ reply accounts for 9.9% of the sample. It is the third most commonly offered response that lags behind discrimination/racism/prejudice (18.9%) and ignorance/misconceptions of Islam (12.4%). In the second and third responses, the ‘viewed as terrorists’ reply makes the highest percentages (30.8% and 47.3%, respectively) among all other responses.

3 This category primarily includes respondents from the Middle East and North Africa who selected ‘white’ because no other survey responses (black, Asian, Hispanic) fit their identity group. In general, Pew follows the US Census and other surveys where ‘white’ describes a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. However, the US Census’ explicit categorization of individuals from the Middle East and North Africa as ‘white’ does not necessary mean that individuals themselves or others view them as such.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hakim Zainiddinov

Hakim Zainiddinov (diploma, Tajik State University; MSSW, Columbia University; MA, Rutgers University; Ph.D., Rutgers University) is a postdoctoral fellow in the department of sociology at Bowdoin College. Special interests include race and ethnicity, Islam in the United States, state–religion relationship, terrorism, globalization, health policies and health disparities. His publications appeared in Ethnic and Racial Studies, Journal of Historical Sociology, Journal of Church and State, Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, European Journal of Public Health, Central Asian Journal of Global Health, The International Journal of Health Planning and Management, and Early Child Development and Care.