Book · Forthcoming · University of Chicago Press
Beliefs that Bind: Political Mobilization and Collective Communal Responsibility for Muslims in the United States
What makes one of America's most diverse religious communities act as one? This book argues that a shared sense of communal responsibility catalyzes American Muslims' beliefs into political action.
When people think of individuals politically motivated by a sense of communal responsibility toward the global Muslim community, ummah, they may think it is driven purely by religiously observant Muslims mobilized by the mosque. Beliefs that Bind challenges this linear rationale by examining the motivations for mobilizations that influence both secular and observant Muslims. It draws attention to Muslim mobilization from a diversity of cultural and social identities—from queer Afghan women to Black women in hijab to non-observant and secular Muslims. It is not simply religious observance but rather specific social conditions, namely perceptions of discrimination elevated by Islamophobia, that increase American Muslims’ collective social responsibility.
Since October 2023, the United States has been gripped by an unprecedented wave of pro-Palestinian protests. Over 22,500 total demonstrations—ignited by the escalating civilian casualties in Gaza—have unfolded nationwide, with American Muslims emerging as some of the impassioned voices at their forefront. Their influence surged even further during the 2024 US presidential election cycle. Muslim Americans held influential leadership roles in electoral campaign activities and were the focal point of conversations in critical battleground states like Michigan, where they galvanized the #Uncommitted movement during the Democratic primaries to challenge President Joe Biden’s re-election bid. American Muslims are transforming into an organized political force, signaling a meaningful shift in American minority politics—despite historically wielding limited political power. However, their mobilization comes at a significant price—as American Muslims face disparately high sanctions for their political expressions.
American media often depicts Muslims as perpetual foreigners. Historical examples, such as the 2010 “Ground Zero Mosque” backlash towards a proposal to build a mosque near the 9/11 memorial, have centered a normative discourse that frames Muslim communities as politically and culturally “Other,” existing outside of the confines of mainstream society. These perceptions are reinforced by structural mechanisms such as public policy, laws, and dominant cultural practices. Beliefs that Bind challenges these delegitimizing beliefs to highlight the underlying set of logics and assumptions that frame the American Muslim political subject—particularly against the backdrop of increasing Islamophobia post-9/11.
This manuscript emerges at a pivotal time in the current US social and political landscape. In the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, explicit policies targeting Muslims have re-emerged, including the revival of the 2016 Muslim travel ban, targeted deportation of Muslim student protestors, and calls for the permanent forced removal of Palestinian civilians from Gaza. Beliefs That Bind delves deeply into the identity consciousness of American Muslims. This exploration not only explains an important rise in social movement mobilizations but also challenges us to reconsider the dynamics of identity-based mobilization for a stigmatized religious minority.
Beliefs that Bind offers a timely and critical examination of American Muslims’ political behavior and argues that the extent to which they feel a sense of responsibility toward Muslim communities explains their likelihood to mobilize. Drawing on a series of originally collected surveys of American Muslims from 2019-2024 and nearly ten years of qualitative in-depth interviews from 2015-2025, this book offers audiences important insight into one specific dynamic that captures the pulse of costly political behavior for American Muslims: connection and duty to the global Muslim community, the ummah.
These insights infuse new perspectives into political science, the politics of race and ethnicity, comparative politics, American political behavior, and Muslim studies. It draws insight into the socio-political conditions that foster transnational solidarity, providing a more expansive theoretical understanding of what ‘political cost’ means for surveilled minorities and deepening the understanding of American Muslims. The project is also equally relevant and accessible to a broader general audience of readers curious to make sense of the rise of political participation by Muslims, who are currently salient in media discourse but remain widely misunderstood. This subject continues to remain relevant, with the current New York City mayoral elections featuring Muslim candidate Zohran Mamdani, among others.