Islamophobia and the construction of a modern Catholic identity
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Abstract
While Muslims have been in the United States for centuries, in the aftermath of September 11th, Muslims and Islam in the United States faced a renewed and intense form of public visibility. This visibility did not dissipate in the months that followed 9/11, but rather continued to permeate American news media outlets in the decades that followed. The coverage of Muslims and Islam in the United States was frequently polarizing and racially charged. Coverage occurred across media sites, and, interestingly, American Catholic sites also engaged in discourses surrounding Muslims and Islam in the United States from distinctly Catholic perspectives. Yet, these perspectives also covered a polarizing spectrum: the theologically conservative-liberal spectrum of American Catholicism. The stark split between liberal and conservative American Catholic responses to and towards Muslims and Islam in the United States may be surprising considering that until the mid-twentieth century American Catholics were the subject of public and ubiquitous anti-Catholic hostilities. However, this split among liberal and conservative Catholics has a long-standing history, beginning in earnest in the mid-twentieth century after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. In the twenty-first century and in the era of public Catholicism, American Catholics actively engage in discourses surrounding the presence of Muslims in the United States. By analyzing debates surrounding Muslims in the contemporary United States, this dissertation interrogates how white American Roman Catholic construct Muslims in the United States as Other and how conservative and liberal Catholics employ discourses about the Other to construct their identities as contemporary American Catholics. Particularly focused on white Catholic American narratives about Muslim and Islam in the United States, this project asks what insights can debates among conservative and liberal Catholics about Muslims and Islam in the United States between the years 2001-2022 provide into contemporary American Catholic identity formation, as well as conceptions of citizenship, gender, and race? Not only do these debates speak to differing ideas of citizenship, gender, and race among Catholics, but also to broader American cultural ideas about what it means to be American and who is eligible to be an American.
Description
2024