Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Policy and Administration

Advisor

Michael M. Knight

Abstract

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, anti-Muslim sentiments appeared in the United States. Because of those attacks, the United States government passed some measures to try and protect the American people from any future attacks. However, the unintended drawbacks of such measures have negatively affected Muslim Americans. Little is known about how adult Senegalese immigrant Muslims have experienced Islamophobia. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to fill the gap in the research literature on how Islamophobia affected adult Senegalese immigrant Muslims. The theoretical frameworks for this study were the integrated threat and representative bureaucracy theories. The central research question focused on the lived experiences of adult Senegalese Muslim immigrants in Indianapolis and how they may have been affected by Islamophobia after the terrorist attacks. Seven participants were interviewed and the data from the interviews were transcribed and coded, using text queries, hand coding, and thematic coding. The overarching finding of this study was that the participants felt that anti-Muslim bias was felt less severely by this subgroup of Muslims in America, but that public policy needed to take more into account Muslims’ position in making the country safer. Positive social change implications of the study findings point to better informed citizens, awareness of local, state, and federal authorities as to the need to include Muslims in the policy making process.

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