{"id":4877,"date":"2016-07-28T08:23:52","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T14:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=4877"},"modified":"2016-07-28T10:09:24","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T16:09:24","slug":"what-does-muslim-american-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/what-does-muslim-american-mean.html","title":{"rendered":"What does “Muslim-American” mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"008\"<\/p>\n

Would you say, of the friendly Patheos Catholic blogging team, \u201cthey\u2019re Catholic-Americans\u201d?<\/p>\n

Would you refer to Bernie Sanders as a \u201cJewish-American\u201d?<\/p>\n

Is Donald Trump a \u201cPresbyterian-American\u201d?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s dumb,\u201d you say?<\/p>\n

Then why are we using the term \u201cMuslim-American\u201d to refer to our Muslim neighbors?<\/p>\n

An example, today, from the Daily Beast<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[Nida] Allam, a recent college graduate and Muslim-American progressive activist, had come to Philadelphia this week to support Bernie Sanders\u2019s final stand in the shadow of Hillary Clinton\u2019s party.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And you know you\u2019ve seen this all over the place as well.<\/p>\n

A while back I griped about<\/a> the American practice of hyphenization, of characterizing someone by their ancestry and labelling them as \u201cX-American,\u201d rather than being \u201cof X\u00a0ancestery,\u201d and I pointed to the case of Bobby Jindal<\/a> and his detractors who seemed to be demanding that he had no right to enjoy Louisianan traditions and must retain the Indian traditions of his immigrant parents, because he was, after all, \u201cIndian-American.\u201d<\/p>\n

Think about the people who are labeled as \u201cX-American.\u201d \u00a0In some cases, it\u2019s a descriptor of ethnicity, or recent immigrant status, or both or neither. \u00a0Who is a \u201cMexican-American\u201d as opposed to an American who, by the way, is of Mexican ancestry or heritage, or a Mexican national who happens to be living in the United States? \u00a0And in other cases, it\u2019s made it into the journalism stylebook as a racial label: \u00a0Asian-American for people considered racially \u201cAsian\u201d and African-American for people with origins in (\u201cblack\u201d) Africa, no matter how long ago (which, on the other hand, seems to have fallen out of favor)? \u00a0(The census definition is circular<\/a> on the latter\u00a0case; you\u2019re black if you\u2019re from a \u201cblack racial group.\u201d)<\/p>\n

But\u00a0the adoption of the descriptor \u201cMuslim-American\u201d makes even less sense. \u00a0Why do we need to combine a religion and a citizenship into a single hyphenated label? \u00a0Beyond the nonsensicalness of the term, whether an individual is American or not is clear from the context, isn\u2019t it? \u00a0In the case of Allam, it should be a given that she\u2019s American if the article is about the Democratic convention, and there shouldn\u2019t be any further need to make that clear than any other convention attendee?<\/p>\n

Is the purpose to emphasize her American-ness, and differentiate her from Muslims outside the U.S.? \u00a0Or is it to create Muslim-ness into an ethnic or racial group of its own, rather than a religion?<\/p>\n

Image: a visibly Muslim woman, and a photobombing anonymous girl, on the Detroit riverfront, own photograph.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Would you say, of the friendly Patheos Catholic blogging team, \u201cthey\u2019re Catholic-Americans\u201d? Would you refer to Bernie Sanders as a \u201cJewish-American\u201d? Is Donald Trump a \u201cPresbyterian-American\u201d? \u201cThat\u2019s dumb,\u201d you say? Then why are we using the term \u201cMuslim-American\u201d to refer to our Muslim neighbors? An example, today, from the Daily Beast: [Nida] Allam, a recent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":2723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[430,16],"class_list":["post-4877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hyphenization","tag-islam"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat does "Muslim-American" mean?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Would you say, of the friendly Patheos Catholic blogging team, "they're Catholic-Americans"? Would you refer to Bernie Sanders as a "Jewish-American"? Is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/what-does-muslim-american-mean.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What does "Muslim-American" mean?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Would you say, of the friendly Patheos Catholic blogging team, "they're Catholic-Americans"? Would you refer to Bernie Sanders as a "Jewish-American"? Is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/what-does-muslim-american-mean.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-28T14:23:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-07-28T16:09:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2015\/09\/008.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/what-does-muslim-american-mean.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/what-does-muslim-american-mean.html\",\"name\":\"What does \\\"Muslim-American\\\" mean?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-28T14:23:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-07-28T16:09:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"Would you say, of the friendly Patheos Catholic blogging team, \\\"they're Catholic-Americans\\\"? Would you refer to Bernie Sanders as a \\\"Jewish-American\\\"? Is\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/what-does-muslim-american-mean.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/what-does-muslim-american-mean.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/what-does-muslim-american-mean.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What does “Muslim-American” mean?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What does \"Muslim-American\" mean?","description":"Would you say, of the friendly Patheos Catholic blogging team, \"they're Catholic-Americans\"? Would you refer to Bernie Sanders as a \"Jewish-American\"? Is","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/what-does-muslim-american-mean.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What does \"Muslim-American\" mean?","og_description":"Would you say, of the friendly Patheos Catholic blogging team, \"they're Catholic-Americans\"? Would you refer to Bernie Sanders as a \"Jewish-American\"? Is","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/what-does-muslim-american-mean.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2016-07-28T14:23:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-07-28T16:09:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2015\/09\/008.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/what-does-muslim-american-mean.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/what-does-muslim-american-mean.html","name":"What does \"Muslim-American\" mean?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-07-28T14:23:52+00:00","dateModified":"2016-07-28T16:09:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"Would you say, of the friendly Patheos Catholic blogging team, \"they're Catholic-Americans\"? Would you refer to Bernie Sanders as a \"Jewish-American\"? Is","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/what-does-muslim-american-mean.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/what-does-muslim-american-mean.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/what-does-muslim-american-mean.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What does “Muslim-American” mean?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}