This map contains information about activities American Muslim individuals and American Muslim communities have undertaken and continue to undertake to counter anti-Muslim attitudes and activity. This includes a variety of activities, such as open mosque events, “ask a Muslim” events, interfaith initiatives, and public presentations about Islam, that have the express purpose of “humanizing” American Muslims.
Sometimes community outreach efforts consist of activities that American Muslims do simply because they are striving to be good people—distributing water in Flint, Michigan; opening mosques to shelter people after natural disasters; operating soup kitchens—but by virtue of today’s climate these efforts also signify something more than that. The map also includes instances of American Muslims running for political office, which typically entails a good deal of outreach efforts not expected of candidates from other faiths (or no particular or visible faith), and instances of political outreach, when American Muslims and American Muslim communities seek the support of elected officials.
Taken together, all of these activities, directly or indirectly, reflect efforts to “humanize” American Muslims. The data we have gathered and that we present in this map, when set alongside information about Islamophobia, provides insight into how American Muslims are responding to the presence of anti-Muslim hate in public life.
Click on individual dots in each map to reveal a short description of the event and a source for additional reading. It may be easier to click on individual events/incidents if you use the zoom function, which will also enable you to differentiate data points in crowded areas. You can “grab” the map to move around the country by left clicking your mouse and holding it down. You can view a single layer of incidents/events by using the click box in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. The map includes complete (if not exhaustive) data for 2017-2011.
This map shows the great variety of activities in which American Muslims engage every day that has the effect of humanizing Muslims and Islam for the broader American public. As the counters to the right of the map suggests, this is the minimum amount of such work that American Muslims have undertaken, representing only activities that have received media coverage. Be sure to scroll through the counters to see all of the categories.