Religiosity, discrimination, and community engagement: Gendered pathways of muslim American emerging adults

The attacks on September 11, 2001, changed the lives of all Americans. For many immigrant Muslims in the United States this meant dealing with an elevated amount of discrimination. This study investigated how perceived discrimination influenced levels of community engagement among Muslim American emerging adults and whether it varied by gender. Data were gathered from 134 Muslim American immigrant participants aged 18 to 28. Surprisingly the findings showed no significant gender differences in terms of religiosity, perceived discrimination, and community engagement. Those who wore traditional religious dress, as expected, reported higher degrees of discrimination than those who did not. Further analysis also showed that for young women deep religious commitments led to community involvement when perceiving higher levels of discrimination. On the other hand, for young men, perceived discrimination did not have any effect in mediating the role of religiosity on community engagement. The results showed that gendered pathways of the role perceived discrimination may play in increasing community engagement in young women but not for young men.