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totake exception wouldthen berearticulated bygender insurprising ways,with asmal-
ler women's organization effectively finding more privilege than the larger mainstream
Muslim American civil rights advocacy organization.
The work presented here provides a preliminary look at these issues, which require
farmoreresearch.Ihavearguedelsewhere(Love2009)thatinordertounderstandwork
thatconfrontsIslamophobiaitisnecessarytounderstandtheconnections,fractures,sim-
ilarities,anddifferencesbetweenandwithinthecommunitiesimpactedundertheracial-
ized Islamophobia umbrella. More research that includes additional communities and
organizations is clearly needed.
Additional research in this area will contribute further to not only an understanding
of gender dynamics within these communities, but also toward a greater general under-
standing of gender and civil rights advocacy organizations working in the twenty-first
century (a supposedly “post-civil rights” and even “post-feminist” era). Research on
confrontingIslamophobia alsocontributes tounpackingtheintersectionality ofraceand
genderinthecontemporaryUnitedStates.WhenracializeddynamicscauseArabAmer-
ican men and South Asian women to face similar discriminatory actions in the work-
place, at airports, and at schools and universities, then political advocacy that attempts
to change social conditions such that discrimination and hate crimes cannot thrive is a
crucialnexusinwhichrace,gender,andmanyotheraxesofsocialdifferenceareimport-
ant. Researching how this advocacy work happens requires a great deal of qualitative
work that “privilege[es] the voices of movement actors themselves” (Irons 1998, 708).
This chapter represents an important step in this direction.
Notes
1
.
Sexuality, which is coconstituted with gender, is also an important factor to consider when analyz-
ing Islamophobia. Some excellent scholarship examining these issues has been produced in recent
years (Husain 2006; Jadallah 2000; Naber 2006). Unfortunately, my empirical data are far too in-
sufficienttomakeameaningfulcontributiontothisliterature,otherthantosaythatsexuality(espe-
cially sexuality as a civil rights issue) remains largely neglected among the advocacy organizations
that I have studied.
2
.
I use the term
Islamophobia
in this article despite its problems because it has attained currency in
much of the contemporary scholarship on this issue, and in part to emphasize the racialized nature
of Islamophobia without attempting to introduce a new term to replace Islamophobia.
2008. Most interviews were voice recorded and transcribed, and all respondents were assured that
their names would not be included in any published material resulting from this study. In addition
to the interview data, this article references the results of a content analysis of a large sample of
documents. Types of documents in the analysis include newsletters, press releases, conference pro-
grams, and research impressions. I made copies of dozens of documents at CAIR's headquarters in
Washington,DC.Inaddition,CAIR'sweb-sitewasdownloadedin2008andaddedtothesampleof
