"Generation 9/11": Canadian Muslim Youth Negotiating Nationalist and Sexual Subjectivities

While much attention has been given to the impact on adult Muslims religious identities in the post-9/11 era, little research has been conducted on young Muslims who have grown up in this period. Moreover, the limited research on Muslim youths identity tends to focus almost exclusively on male aggression and female piety. In this dissertation, I argue that the repetition of these themes in both scholarly research and mainstream media serves to narrow an understanding of young Muslims identities, and functions to perpetuate stereotyped notions of young Muslims. I also argue that sexuality is hegemonically employed in North American national ideologies to construct Muslim sexuality as inferior to non-Muslim sexuality; however, until now, researchers have yet to examine its impact on young Muslims sexual subjectivities. I situate my study in the context of national ideology and particularly the shifts taking place in the post-9/11 context that underpin notions of belonging and citizenship. The idea of the nation includes regulations and restrictions for sexual crossingsthat is, good citizens should not have sex with the enemy Other (Nagel, 2003: 141-42). National belonging thus entails controlling the sexual practices of national members and defining acceptable sexual coupling. Accordingly, because terrorist-enemy constructions are frequently linked to Muslim identity, my study examines how this sexually racialized structuring affects young Canadian Muslims perceptions of national belonging and citizenship. I argue that these interrelated constructions of Muslim identity and national belonging have an impact on young Canadian Muslims sexual subjectivities and their perceptions of appropriate sexual coupling within a national context. Hence, this study simultaneously illuminates the links between Muslim sexual identity and perspectives of national belonging as well as stresses young Muslim identities as an under-researched area of Canadian identity politics.