UCLA

Arab American Muslim youth are working to create possibilities for themselves in a world structured by interlocked systems of domination and control. Much literature has documented the ways these systems have constrained this population (see Amer & Awad, 2016) but there is a need to explore the ways in which young Arab American Muslims are active agents in their lives. Additionally, these youth may approach their own development through the tenets of Islam, which propose that human development is about refining the soul by striving towards justice in relationship with others. This qualitative study involved fifteen participants in conversations over the span of nearly ten months that resulted in a conclusion that young people are creating possibilities through legibility, refusal, and revolutionary optimism. Future studies can further interrogate how young people choose these options for possibility and probe further into how Islam guides their pursuit of possibilities.