The Transnational Ethics of Four Muslim American Women in Jordan

This chapter begins with a description of the shifting terms of Muslim American political engagement in the 1970s as Muslim immigration increased and many African American Muslims sought a rapprochement with American liberalism. It shows how the attacks of 9/11 shifted concerns of US policymakers away from African American Muslim men toward Muslim women who wore head scarves and toward “brown” Muslims--those perceived to be from Arab and South Asian backgrounds. Exploring responses to this changing political landscape, this chapter provides an in-depth examination of four Muslim American women who theorize alternatives to an American nationalism defined largely in terms of the war on terror and Islamophobia. Like the previous chapter, it analyzes how their travel to a Muslim country—in this case, Jordan—shapes their political consciousness. The chapter shows how their ethics, unlike that of Malcolm X, sustains political loyalty to the United States and avoids the call for political revolution while also articulating a hope for change in the US war on terror and other foreign policies.