Browsing by Author "Ferguson, Jauhara"

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    "How American Am I?": Comparing American Identity among US Black Muslims
    (2021-10-21) Ferguson, Jauhara; Howard Ecklund, Elaine
    Much sociological attention has focused on Black identity within the United States. Less attention, however, has been given to understanding how immigrant and native-born streams of US Black Muslims articulate American identity, a particularly important empirical gap given the connections among race, religion, and national identity. In this study I ask: how do second-generation American Black Muslims and indigenous Black American Muslims compare in the ways they narrate connections among race, American identity, and Islam? Using data from 31 in-depth interviews with Black Muslims living in Houston, I find that racial double-consciousness complicates American identity for US Black Muslims regardless of immigrant status. While indigenous Black American respondents critique racist US histories and structural inequities, I argue that in certain spaces Muslim identity has the potential to reinforce American identity for indigenous Black American Muslims. For second-generation respondents, however, American identity is reinforced through immigrant status. Second-generation respondents compare their own experiences living in the United States with that of their immigrant parents. This study makes a case for “triple-consciousness” to explain the way Black Muslims perceive their racial, religious, and national identities within the context of the United States and the Muslim American community. More broadly, I demonstrate how intersecting identities can fuel micro and macro processes that can shift the way American identity is understood.
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    Navigating Religion Online: Jewish and Muslim Responses to Social Media
    (MDPI, 2021) Ferguson, Jauhara; Ecklund, Elaine Howard; Rothschild, Connor
    Although social media use among religious communities is proliferating, significant gaps remain in our understanding of how religious minorities perceive social media in relation to their faith and community. Thus, we ask how individuals use religion to frame moral attitudes around social media for Jews and Muslims. Specifically, how does social media shape understandings of community? We analyze 52 interviews with Jews and Muslims sampled from Houston and Chicago. We find that Jews and Muslims view social media as a “double-edged sword”—providing opportunities to expand intracommunal ties and access to religious resources, while also diluting the quality of ties and increasing exposure to religious distractions. These findings help us understand what it is about being a religious minority in the US that might shape how individuals engage with social media. Moreover, they suggest that social media may be transforming faith communities in less embodied ways, a topic that is of particular relevance in our pandemic times.