Print

10 The Psychology of Inequity cooperation, hostile intentions, and a lack of team coordination (Delvaux, Vanbeselaere, & Mesquita, 2015 Sy, Côté, & Saavedra, 2005). Based on these findings, it can be assumed that due to negative perceptions about Muslims in the West, it is likely that this population experiences more negative emotions compared to other minorities. MARGINALIZATION AND PERCEIVED INEQUALITY OF DIASPORA MUSLIMS What emerges as an inevitable consequence of stereotyping and stigma- tizing is discrimination and marginalization of the diaspora Muslim pop- ulations in Western countries. Among the various forms of “othering,” two prevalent ways in which the Muslim identity is perceived are, first, as rooted in oppression and, second, as a homogenous community. Both of these understandings of the Muslim community are problematic because the former offers a superficial and ill-informed explanation of beliefs and customs of Muslims, and the latter undermines the diversity and hetero- geneity within the Muslim community (Saeed, 2007). In Europe, the spatially marginalized Muslims are held responsible by Indigenous Europeans for their segregation from the non-Muslim residents—some of whom claim with certainty that the reason Mus- lims reside in small close communities is that they consciously exclude themselves from the larger society to preserve their religious and ethnic identity (Foner & Alba, 2008). Research on these “apparently” ghettoized religious enclaves shows otherwise: it demonstrates how these parallel so- cieties are imposed on Muslims by the Indigenous European population in an attempt to restrict their rigorous integration in the society (Foner & Alba, 2008). The findings of the Pew Research Center’s (2017b) survey of U.S. Mus- lims serve as a good starting point to objectively look at the discriminatory experiences of diaspora Muslims living in the United States. Approxi- mately half of the surveyed Muslim Americans stated that over the recent years, maintaining a Muslim identity in the United States has become dif- ficult due to covert and overt discriminatory behaviors. Muslim Ameri- cans have consistently expressed that the media coverage of Muslims is neither fair nor accurate. An alarmingly rising percentage of Muslims in America report that they have been victims of social inequality at some point in their life. From confessions of being treated with suspicion and being called out with offensive labels to getting physically attacked or harmed, there is a mounting amount of evidence that demonstrate how the Muslim diaspora in the West continues to feel threatened due to its religious identity. The Pew survey (2017b) aptly highlighted a category among Muslims that falls victim to unjustified prejudice by the non-Muslim majority: Mus- lim women. An obvious gender gap was reflected in the findings of the