This paper examines the lived experiences of second-generation Muslim Americans in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, exploring the intersections of Islamophobia, identity formation and civic engagement in the post-9/11 United States. The study draws on qualitative interviews with 50 participants, including students, young professionals and community leaders. Findings show that Islamophobia acts as a persistent, multi-layered structural force shaping everyday life through overt forms such as verbal harassment, physical intimidation and hate crimes, while subtler expressions manifest through microaggressions, self-surveillance, occupational self-erasure and the emotional labour of conditional belonging. These experiences are deeply gendered and racialized, with visibly Muslim women facing a heightened vulnerability shaped by the intersection of religion, gender and public visibility. Islamophobia is further mediated by phenotypic markers and religious visibility, producing an internal hierarchy of vulnerability within Muslim communities. At the same time, the findings reveal a dialectical relationship between marginalisation and civic mobilisation, wherein conditions of exclusion generate solidarity, religious identity and civic commitment. Through volunteering, political activism community organising, second-generation Muslim Americans actively construct belonging and negotiate an American identity that engages civic values while resisting assimilative pressures.
Aleezay Khaliq (Thu,) studied this question.