Contemporary Arab American Women Writers: Hyphenated Identities ...

The U.S. government’s targeting of Muslim men as potential suspects immediately following the violent attacks on September 9, 2001 revealed not only that racial/cultural profiling as well as stereotyping are alive and well in a nation that likes to believe that it has moved past racism and discrimination but also that a substantial number of U.S. citizens are Muslim and Arab (identities that cannot be collapsed since a large percentage of Muslims are not Arabs and not all Arabs are Muslims). These U.S. citizens were clearly taken aback by the veil of suspicion that fell over their communities following the 9/11 attacks as well as shocked by the actual arrests, acts of violence, and verbal attacks many endured.

Indeed, the present politics of suspicion surrounding Muslims, Arabs, and, more broadly, anyone of Middle East origins (or who looks and/or has a name that sounds Middle Eastern—which for many Americans can include a rather wide spectrum) calls for a reinvigorated and more nuanced examination of the workings of race, nonEuropean cultures, and nonChristian religions within the context of contemporary America that takes into account those Americans who have tended to stay under the radar and remain relatively unknown because they did not fit into the major minority groups (African, Asian, Latino, and Native Americans). Muslim and Arab Americans lived within the fabric of American culture long before the national spotlight was placed on them by the 9/11 events; and, presumably, the ways in which they were subsequently targeted says something about the kinds of discrimination they already faced in their daily lives based on their differences visàvis the mainstream European-derived culture—differences in terms of religion, physique, cultural traditions, gender constructions, clothing, foods. Such constellations of differences resulted in identifications as Muslim and Arab Americans in lieu of a focus on national origins. The literature produced by Muslim and Arab American writers not only reveals the difficulties they must navigate because of their differences but also the variety of ways in which they have constructed distinct hybrid identities that are part of the American experience and thus can be useful in thinking about the hybridization of American culture.