The Incorporation of Muslim - Americans into the American Civil Sphere

 

            

               By Smrami Patel

According to Jeffrey C. Alexander, civil society refers to “a sphere of solidarity in which individual rights and collective obligations are tensely intertwined.” (Alexander 2006: 53) He describes three modes of incorporation – assimilation, hyphenation, and multiculturalism – as methods for the inclusion of excluded groups into this civil sphere, with overlap and fluidity between the different modes.  

While Alexander describes the characteristics of all three in his book, the image above highlights two – hyphenation and assimilation. Hyphenation acknowledges that people and minority groups are different, and their rituals and traditions can be allowed to celebrate within civil society. People are ethnic rather than foreign; they are versions of Americans. The institution of a Mosque symbolises the practices and rituals of Muslims – a minority group within the US. The placement of the American flag outside the Mosque signifies that some rituals of the Islamic faith do not contradict the core of American civil society and thus allow Muslim – Americans to the incorporated into this civil society broadly defined. Moreover, the image above provides an example of assimilation into American civil society. Assimilation consists of shedding the “polluted” identity of the excluded group by having a  split between private and public spheres. By keeping rituals and practices within the Mosque and pledging allegiance to the flag outside Muslim – Americans are seen to actively participate in the civil sphere.  

Nonetheless, even today it can be argued that Muslim – Americans are not incorporated into civil society through multiculturalism. Multiculturalism establishes itself on the achievement of diversity and adding those qualities to the core of civil society. However, through incidents like the 9/11 attacks, the qualities of Muslim – Americans have been so antagonised that their qualities are placed far from qualities that align with civil society that their inclusion can not even be fathomed and thus, they cannot be included.

       Works Cited: 

            Jeffrey, Alexander. 2006. The Civil Sphere. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

    

            Gnagel, Unknown Creator. 2017. "Islamic Center of America mosque in Dearborn, Michigan stock photo".

From www.istockphoto.com/. Retrieved March 31, 2022 (https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/islamic-center-of-america-mosque-in-dearborn-michigan-gm873572390-243952922)