American Identity Matrix
The Matrix of the American Identity and Islam
Ideas of race and citizenship have colored the American discourse during the postbellum era. This reading shows how these ideas cast its shadow on the anti-Muslim sentiment rhetoric in America today. They are seen as the new problematic minority in today’s America but, of course, they were and are not the only problematic minority. They belong to a culture which somehow contradicts the basic premise of the myth of what it means to be an American. And who knows what America means. Even Akram couldn’t figure it out for himself (Bayumi, 125). The policies regarding who belongs and who doesn’t were always tailored to single Muslims as well as other ethnicities and races out of the American cultural and social landscape. During the early twentieth century, the paradigm in America national identity, led Muslims immigrant to primarily seek inclusion through ethnic rather than a “religious mode of self-identification” (GhaneanBassiri, 137) Being religious seems somehow to be one of the main issues that face the Muslim Americans now.
The event of 9/11 helped to uncover all the hidden fears in the American sensibilities with regard to its own identity, self-image and the way in which American people perceive its multi-ethnic and religious …show more content…
Webb, Khan, and Ali were not able to challenge the “identity matrix” of the American reality, but rather they strived to form a religious discourse that may appeal to the American common sense. They had to substitute their Islamic roots with a shady metaphysical teachings that might elevate the “partial” nature of their religion in the “the evolutionary ordering of space and time.” Islam according to “the spiral of evolution” is a “partial religion” and not a “universal” one (GhaneaBassiri, 108). Consequently, they had to prove once and again that they are not Muslims because they don’t want to be singled
Ideas of race and citizenship have colored the American discourse during the postbellum era. This reading shows how these ideas cast its shadow on the anti-Muslim sentiment rhetoric in America today. They are seen as the new problematic minority in today’s America but, of course, they were and are not the only problematic minority. They belong to a culture which somehow contradicts the basic premise of the myth of what it means to be an American. And who knows what America means. Even Akram couldn’t figure it out for himself (Bayumi, 125). The policies regarding who belongs and who doesn’t were always tailored to single Muslims as well as other ethnicities and races out of the American cultural and social landscape. During the early twentieth century, the paradigm in America national identity, led Muslims immigrant to primarily seek inclusion through ethnic rather than a “religious mode of self-identification” (GhaneanBassiri, 137) Being religious seems somehow to be one of the main issues that face the Muslim Americans now.
The event of 9/11 helped to uncover all the hidden fears in the American sensibilities with regard to its own identity, self-image and the way in which American people perceive its multi-ethnic and religious …show more content…
Webb, Khan, and Ali were not able to challenge the “identity matrix” of the American reality, but rather they strived to form a religious discourse that may appeal to the American common sense. They had to substitute their Islamic roots with a shady metaphysical teachings that might elevate the “partial” nature of their religion in the “the evolutionary ordering of space and time.” Islam according to “the spiral of evolution” is a “partial religion” and not a “universal” one (GhaneaBassiri, 108). Consequently, they had to prove once and again that they are not Muslims because they don’t want to be singled