Munira Omari

June 7, 2012

Will Arab Muslims Assimilate to a White Identity?

Muslims have been migrating to America since the late nineteenth century. In that time two waves of Arab/Muslim migrations have occurred. According to Sirin and Fine, the first one was between 1870 and 1880, in which most of the immigrants were Christians and did not have any difficulty assimilating with the Americans. The second wave was in 1965, in which about 1.3 billion Arabs migrated especially from the Israeli war, in which most of them were Muslim. To this day, we see many Arabs who are Muslims migrate to USA for many reason, specifically educational. With the millions of Arabs migrating to the United States, many men marry Americans, and have children and raise these children in America. Upon this growing situation and with many of their children learning in public schools and interacting with Americans from many backgrounds, will these children in future generations call themselves Muslim Arab- American or just Muslim American? Will they start developing their own identity? Will the hyphen gradually disappear and become American only?

When it comes to the actual assimilation, religion plays a big part. For the reason is that Islam teaches its believers to maintain their modesty throughout their life and to stay away from committing any sin. In an interview with Amira Omari, she is half Arab and half Mexican-American as well as Muslim, I asked her if she will be allowing her children to meet and interact with Americans of different ethnicities. Her answer was “No, we don’t have the same religion. I will not allow my children to get very close and have American friends or visit them at their house because their parents might drink alcohol.” For this reason and many more Arab Muslims do not allow their children to interact with Americans in a close and personal way.

As believed throughout the world, in every part of it, people tend to look different; and they are recognized with their physical appearance. When people think of Arabs, they think of them as being dark skin and dark eyes. On the other hand, when people think American, they think of blond, white skin and blue eyes. But here in America, it is known that “you are American, no matter what color skin you are.” That statement is definitely true. But when I asked my sister as part of the interview “What do you consider yourself? Are you white American or Arab?” She indicated to me that she is “Middle Eastern/Arab” and would not be considered otherwise; however she is white skinned, blue eyed and many mistake her for a typical American. As indicated by Ajrouch and Jamal in their research that racial identities are an influential aspect in which the culture you were born into and learnt as a child is the one with more influence. Amira was and still is influenced by the Arab culture, as well as many other Arabs who were born and raised in Arab countries and find it quite difficult to interact with Americans especially after the 9/11 incident.

In our current situation, many Muslim Arab-Americans have tried to assimilate and befriend with many Americans from all over the country. But the fact is that the physical appearance does not have any influence on the assimilation process in our day as much as it did seventy years ago. However, when it comes to Arab Muslims assimilating to the White identity from a religious point of view, it will take quite a while for it to happen due to the fact that many Arab Muslims are conservative and would not allow that complete assimilation to happen anytime soon.

Works Cited

Ajrouch, Kristine. Assimilating to a White Identity: The Case of Arab Americans. New York: New York University Press, Vol.41 No. 4, 2007.

Curtis, Edward E. Muslims in America: A Short History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Omari, Amira. Telephone Interview. 10 June 2012.

Sirin, Selcuk R, and Michelle Fine. Muslim American Youth: Understanding Hyphenated Identities Through Multiple Methods. New York: New York University Press, 2008.