Religion or Ethnicity?: Middle Eastern Conflicts and American Arab-Muslim Protest Politics

This article argues that American Arab-Muslim political mobilization in response to conflicts abroad is predominantly influenced by their ethnic divisions and sectarian cleavages rather than shared religious commonalities. The article provides an analysis of Detroit's Arab-Muslim reactions to the conflicts in the Middle East from 2001–2009. It shows that while Arab-Muslims were particularly active in expressing their views on the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War and the winter 2009 Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip, the Iraq War of 2003 did not generate noteworthy activism. Varied expressions regarding different Middle Eastern conflicts are predominantly influenced by the different national origins of various Arab populations.