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Muslim American Policy Advocacy and the Palestinian Israeli Conflict: Claims-making and the Pursuit of Group Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2017

Emily Cury
Emily Cury*
Affiliation:
Northeastern University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Emily Cury, Northeastern University, International Affairs, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. E-mail: e.cury@neu.edu.
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Abstract

Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, United States Muslims have been increasingly targeted as “others,” accused of holding dual-loyalties, and seen as potentially subversive. Nevertheless, Muslim American interest groups have not recoiled from foreign policy engagement. I argue that this is because mobilizing around symbolic foreign policy issues provides them with an opportunity to access the policy dialogue as a minority group making rights claims. To illustrate this argument, I conduct a discourse analysis of Muslim American policy engagement toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I rely on primary documents produced by the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the two leading United States Muslims organizations, as well as interviews conducted with institutional elites. I find that, through their policy advocacy, these organizations are framing their demands around United States interests and minority group rights, while positioning themselves as the legitimate representatives of the Muslim American community.

One of the most important issues to us is, of course, the Palestinian Israeli issue because this is central to what America is in the Middle East and the Muslim world.1

—Salam Al-Marayati

All I want from you, Mr. Policymaker is [for you] to listen to the other side of the story. I have a narrative that you didn't have a chance to hear, so let me give it to you and as-salamu alaykum [peace be upon you].2

—Dr. Maher Hathout

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 417 - 439
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2017 

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Paul A. Djupe for his helpful comments and suggestions on the manuscript, as well as the two anonymous reviewers. I am grateful to the Muslim American elites who agreed to be interviewed for this project.

References

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