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CHAPTER 5 MULTIPLE IDENTITIES AMONG ARAB AMERICANS: A TALE OF TWO CONGREGATIONS JEN’NAN GHAZAL READ THE TERRORIST attacks of September 11, 2001, introduced a new era in our society, one that will likely have long-term effects on Americans of all religious and ethnic backgrounds. Since the attacks, Arab and Muslim communities in the United States have been especially vulnerable to racial profiling and discrimination , which raises important questions about the effects of September 11 on their identity and welfare. There is some evidence that Muslim Arab Americans (Muslims) are more susceptible to racial profiling and discrimination than Christian Arab Americans (Christians), in part due to their greater visibility and more recent immigrant status. There are also indications that Christians have greater latitude than Muslims in choosing their ethnic identities (Zogby 2002). These, however, are empirical questions that require further examination, which is the goal of this essay. Specifically, I assess the impact of September 11 on Arab American identity and well being and examine whether and how the consequences differ for Muslims and Christians—that is, the role of religion in the adaptation experiences of Arab Americans after September 11. I use a comparative approach to answer the following questions: What does it mean to be an Arab in America today, and how does this vary by religious affiliation? What effect, if any, did September 11 have on the ethnic and religious identities of Arab Americans? Did it strengthen identification with other Arabs, with other Americans, with other Muslims or Christians, or a combination of these? What are the ethnic options available to Muslims and Christians, and to what extent do their options depend on situational context and sociodemographic characteristics? For example, are Christians able to assert their national identities in some contexts but pass as non-Arab in others? Are these options more available to Christians than to Muslims? If so, to what degree does this reflect differences in national origin, generational status, and social class? I draw on ethnographic, interview, and survey data that I collected at an Arab church and Arab mosque in central Texas in the year following September 11, 2001. This approach is useful because it allows for the triangulation of survey data with in-depth interviews and participant observation to get at both general patterns and meaning and process. As a research design that compares a church and a mosque, it is also valuable because it allows Arab ethnicity and Islamic religion—so often collapsed into synonymous components of culture in studies of Middle Eastern communities—to be separated. The design further provides meaningful variation in Arab ethnic identity, which might be obscured in a more aggregated study of Muslims in the United States that includes diverse ethnic (for example, Pakistani, Indian, Arab) and racial groups. A limitation of the design is the exclusion of secularized Arabs (for example, non-churched), which is often unavoidable in studies of this population since there are no available, representative lists from which to draw comparable samples of Arabs of Muslim and Christian origin. The chapter is organized in three sections. The first section provides the historical context for contemporary diversity in Arab American identity (i.e., Muslim and Christian), and offers a framework for theorizing about identity formation since September 11, 2001. The next section details the research questions and methodology, followed by empirical evidence on similarities and differences in Muslims’ and Christians’ religious and ethnic identities and experiences of discrimination. The chapter concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for the future incorporation and well being of Arabs in American society. BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE Research on the economic and social adaptation of immigrants occupies a substantial area in social science literature (for a review, see Foner, Rumbaut, and Gold 2000; see also Portes and Rumbaut 1996). In the past decade, scholars have increasingly recognized the importance of religion in defining the experiences of immigrant populations (Ebaugh and Chafetz 1999; Warner and Wittner 1998). Studies of newer and more established ethnic communities find that religious traditions provide secure anchors of meaning in an environment of social change. Ethnic religious institutions sustain these traditions and strengthen group identity by giving members an arena to share ideological, moral, and ethical beliefs (Haddad and Lummis 1987; Bankston and Zhou 1996). Despite a growing literature on this topic, little is known about the influence of religion on the assimilation experiences of Arab Americans (Bozorgmehr, Der-Martirosian, and Sabagh 1996). This oversight...

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