Imagining Life Under the Long Shadow of 9/11: Backlash, Media Discourse, Identity and Citizenship of the Bangladeshi Diaspora in the United States

Abstract

In this article I examine how the Bangladeshi diaspora in the United States, a predominantly first-generation Muslim immigrant group, reacted to the post-9/11 backlash, and articulated their identity and citizenship. Although in the wake of 9/11 backlash the Bangladeshi-Americans felt the pressure to think their life and identity in a binary Muslim vs American term, they refused to accept that identity not only because they do not fit into that fixed categorization, but also because it curtails their ability to engage in society in multiple terms and exert their citizenship rights. The ‘forced’ awakening of religious identity eventually turned into a political awareness, invoking critical questions about citizenship in the post-9/11 environment.

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