ABSTRACT
This chapter examines political and policy practices that are ultimately eroding a long-held and highly valued goal of “education for all.” It explains how “Islamophobia” has become a social fact of school life for many young people in US public schools. The chapter offers ideas for curbing and ultimately eradicating an Islamophobia that is toxic to the educational aims of the United States. One line of productive research focuses on better understanding Muslim identity in different contexts and across different ethnic groups. Politicians and the US government have participated in apportioning collective guilt to Muslim Americans for any terrorist attack that had any Muslim involvement, and they have generated widespread belligerence, hostility, and suspicion regarding Muslims. In Shabana Mir’s research, documented in her book Muslim American Women on Campus: Undergraduate Social Life and Identity, Shabana examined how state surveillance and a global stigmatization of Muslims as terrorists have significantly hurt Muslim college students’ psychosocial well-being.
