Focusing on places and Muslim communities in New York City, this book shows that Islamophobia is a spatialized force that has shaped Muslim American identities after 9/11.

Based on extensive fieldwork conducted between 2011 and 2017, Huma Mohibullah's urban ethnography Islamophobia in Post-9/11 New York City tells the stories of Muslim New Yorkers to argue that Islamophobia is not merely a discursive phenomenon, but also a spatialized and affective one. Muslims experience and feel Islamophobia in their encounters with physical landscapes, and it impacts their identities, behaviors, and relationships to places. One effect of this internalized Islamophobia is widespread self-policing in Muslim American communities as their members try to prove that they are moderate and progressive Muslims, as well as good American citizens.

The book covers key controversies, including the planned development of the Islamic community center Park51, widely referred to as the “Ground Zero Mosque,” near the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan and the Islamophobia in the master narrative about 9/11 that is spatialized through the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. In addition, the book examines how Muslims experience Islamophobia in everyday spaces such as the city's neighborhoods, streets, and subway system, and how they have taken to building religious places that embody liberal democratic values in response. In this way, Mohibullah provides wide-ranging insights into how Muslim Americans experience and respond to Islamophobia in their engagement with places.