تروريست حقيقي

Abstract

Ethnographic Research conducted among Arab Muslims in metropolitan Chicago shows that in the 2 years following the 9/11 attacks, Muslim American women experienced more than twice as many hate acts as Muslim American men. When these acts occurred, a hijab (headscarf) was present more than ninety percent of the time. Additionally, these types of attacks, which include pulling scarves, spitting, and harassing language, continue into the present and are most likely to occur in public spaces of majority-white suburban areas where Arab Muslims constitute a significant minority. These hate acts can be interpreted as boundary-making actions — attempts by local residents to define the boundaries of middle class American culture. The actors share similarities to snipers because they usually act with a singular strike, make declarations about rights to space, and withdraw quickly from the scene. That these acts continue to occur in majority-white suburbs while receding in diverse urban areas reveals the significance of place and the hegemonic cultural definitions tied to it. Muslim women in hijab are symbols of a culture that some Americans see as alien and unwelcome in American society. Individuals take on the historic role of sniper for the cause of the “clash of civilizations.” The paper will use quantitative findings, ethnographic data, and contextualized quotes to explore the concepts of cultural snipers, boundary making, and the symbolic meaning of the hijab in American culture and society. The author is a sociologist, visiting professor of American Culture at the University of Michigan, and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Illinois at Chicago.