Deep Dives with ISPU
Deep Dives with ISPU
Illinois Muslims: Needs, Assets, and Opportunities
Illinois is one of the most diverse and representative states in the nation, encompassing communities of every race, class, and background. It is also home to the largest per capita Muslim population in the nation. A snapshot of Illinois' Muslims is a snapshot of America's Muslims, so understanding the needs and assets of this population is key to ensuring Illinois becomes an even more equitable, inclusive state.
Launched July 2022, the Illinois Muslims: Needs, Assets, and Opportunities report presents an empirical assessment of the strengths and struggles of the Illinois Muslim community, with a comparison to the Illinois general public. In this episode of Deep Dives with ISPU, you’ll hear about this groundbreaking research from ISPU’s Director of Research, Dalia Mogahed, in conversation with Dr. Dilara Sayeed, President of Strategy and Partnerships at the Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition, and Dr. Joseph Hoereth, report co-author and Director at the Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement.
The report was convened by the Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition, with research conducted by the Institute for Social Policy, and the Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
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Welcome to deep dives with ISPU, a podcast by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. On today's episode, we're exploring the context and findings of a historic report. Illinois Muslims: Needs Assets, and Opportunities. Released in July 2022, this report presents an empirical assessment of the strengths and struggles of the Illinois Muslim community in comparison to the Illinois General public. The report was convened by the Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition with research conducted by ISPU and the Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement at University of Illinois, Chicago. Illinois is one of the most diverse and representative states in the nation encompassing communities of every race, class and background. It is also home to the largest per capita Muslim population. So a snapshot in Illinois Muslims is a snapshot of America's Muslims. In today's episode, you'll hear about how this report came to be an explorer select report findings from ISPs Director of Research Dalia Mogahed in conversation with Dr. Dilara Sayeed, President of Strategy and Partnerships at the Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition, and Dr. Joseph Hoereth, report co author and Director at the Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement. Thanks for tuning in to Deep Dives with ISPU.
Dalia Mogahed:Welcome back to Deep Dives with ISPU I'm Dalia Mogahed, Director of Research at ISPU. I'm joined today by Dr. Dilara Sayeed of the Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition, and Dr. Joseph Hoereth of the University of Chicago's Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement. Today, we're discussing an important report. Illinois Muslims: Assets, Needs and Opportunities. Dilara, Joe, thank you so much for joining us. Could you tell our listeners a little bit about how the report came to be? And what makes it so historic? What were the conversations taking place in the community and beyond that prompted moving forward with this creation? Let's start with you Dilara.
Dilara Sayeed:Thank you, Dalia, and Asalamu-alaykum and peace to all of our listeners. So one of our current data tells us that Illinois Muslims are the largest per capita Muslim population in the nation. We are diverse racially, ethnically, in terms of the level of faith etc. But most importantly, we're one of the largest. So I guess then the next question becomes, so who are they? Who are we? And that's really the crux of how this came to be. We ourselves were asking who are we and our allies, partners, stakeholders in the community legislators, funders were asking who are you. And this report, prompted by many leaders across our community and our stakeholders, then became a real coalescing force for us over the last three years working with the University of Illinois, and Dr. Joe Hoereth's team. And working with you, Dalia and the ISPU team, exciting to do the work, but so exciting now that we're going to be able to get some of this information.
Dalia Mogahed:And it's been really an exciting project for us to work on. Joe, do you want to add anything?
Joe Hoereth:Sure. Thank you for having me. And I just want to say it's been just amazing to be a part of this, this work in this project, and this important, this important survey, and just following along with what what Dilara shared in our current times, I think data and information is so critically important. On the one hand, you know, communities need to be able to express who they are and, and, and have their own voice and speak up for themselves. And sure, there's lots of ways to do that cultural expression, other ways through media. It's almost as if nowadays, if you if there's no data about you, you don't exist. And you know, the Muslim community in Illinois, Dilara, my good friend, you know, we know and we've been talking for some time about what the Census does not collect, and what the where the gaps are in information. And so one reason why this report is so important is that it starts with what really shouldn't be an ongoing effort to document the presence and needs of the Muslim community in Illinois, can mean that so often marginalized in so many ways. So the report is kind of a way to say yes, we're here, you know, and here's who we are. And here's what we contribute to in Illinois, which is critically important for any group to do.
Dalia Mogahed:So let's dig right into it. Could you guys each just share a finding or two that you found especially impactful? What surprised you the most from these findings? Joe, let's start with you.
Joe Hoereth:For me the most impactful, and I'm not gonna say a surprise at all, I think it's, it's different when there isn't any information. And then suddenly you have information. I'm not going to say, that's a surprise, I think, when you ask folks in the Muslim community, to see some of this sudden, there may be some surprises, but other things not at all. And for me, it's the extent of the contributions of that the Muslim community brings particularly to the to the economy of Illinois, I mean, I'll start maybe with an unexpected area in the Muslim community, the survey respondents give generously to community organizations, we saw the 83% of respondents saying that, and that's very evident in the results, in addition to 12%, being self employed business owners, and the concentration of employment in important economic sectors, such as health care, technology and business. So when I say, you know, the Muslim community is a is a driver of force within the Illinois economy. It's really fascinating to think about where those contributions come from, in these important sectors, but it's also socially driven. It's also driven by a deep rooted sense of, of giving and, and support for for their community. So for me, those that was particularly impactful.
Dalia Mogahed:Dilara, what about you,
Dilara Sayeed:The findings were just really valuable in so many ways. What surprised me and what I think will be really impactful is the information we gained about the use what we found about Illinois Muslims, which is a snapshot of American Muslims, as we are a young and mostly very diverse faith community. And so knowing that we have a large swath of our community that identify under 30 years old, means we are a rich source of modern labor. We have innovative ideas and and great social media and an understanding of how to work in today's world. We have voter pipelines that our elected officials and public officials should note and so much more, right. And for this demographic, we also want to know their challenges, their stresses their needs, I think we can do a better job in serving our communities, if we have data and stories about what is needed, and how they're living their lives. And certainly for the youth, that information will be invaluable, in terms of what really surprised me and made me excited also was what Joe said. And I'm going to add to that, like, we found in the data that certainly there were hardships in our community financial hardships, many who are worried about the next paycheck or paying their bills. But even through all that Muslims were giving large parts of the community and large demographic of the community are giving to charity, as Joe said, and to their community organizations. This is a lot about what we think and what our values are, as people as Americans, and as American Muslims that even through hardship, we find a way to bring ease to others lives and to our own charity. Sadaqah brings meaning and purpose. And we reach for that. And we do it wholeheartedly and very generously.
Dalia Mogahed:You both already kind of touched on this, but I want to draw people's attention to the fact that this assessment is kind of a split, exploring demographics, assets, and needs of Illinois Muslims. So in your minds, how do these areas of research intersect with and inform each other? Dilara, let's start with you
Dilara Sayeed:You know, what a great question. So we're looking at this, its demographics, its assets, its needs, like okay, where does it all fit in together? I'm an educator. You know, I'm a former teacher of diverse students, and I bring that lens to the work I do in the civic space and in the nonprofit space. And one of the things I've learned in my career is often we see the world and communities through myopic lens, right and If you learn that a community is marginalized, or often invisible, you view them through a deficit lens, like what are their needs? Where are their challenges, right. And if you learn about a community being wealthy or self sufficient, you often just see them through the lens of a assets need assets lens or a privileged lens? Well, what we find is, we're all a bit of both. And this report does that it pulls apart the fact that depending on demographics, and across all demographics, there are assets, there is privilege, there's also great need and great challenges. And having this data about this complex and complicated community in its full form, will allow us to understand this community better, and address the challenges and utilize the expertise and the assets. And that's what we really want all stakeholders to be able to do is to understand us, meet our needs and serve us, and then utilize our expertise and our assets. I love how you phrase— that oftentimes with a minority. We want to put them in a box, are they about their deficits? Are they some kind of, you know, model minority? What are they and we want to label? And what this report beautifully does is it shows, you know, it showcases everything that's going right the strengths of the community as well as their struggles. Joe, what do you think?
Joe Hoereth:I think, in addition to the power, the empowering aspect of an assets based approach, which I think really frees people from historically what surveys have been thought to be about, which is about studying a problem or problematizing people. In addition to that, it encourages actually some creative thinking, that doesn't happen. Usually, when you're just focusing on deficits, some creative thinking about the ways an assets of whatever that community is the affinity community, a community of faith, a community of shared geography, or whatever. But what are what are its strengths? What does it what does it have? And how can those be better connected to what its needs are? And a lot of times, again, this is not this is you're not saying I'm not saying we're solving and addressing every problem this way. But it's, it can be a powerful starting point, for a conversation about how do we get people's needs better served by first looking at what you all collectively bring, or what a community collectively brings, or has, has an asset to that to that need?
Dalia Mogahed:So even though this assessment, as you know, of course, focuses on one state, the state of Illinois, what can listeners across the country and beyond learn about the American Muslim community, based on the snapshot of the Illinois Muslim community?
Dilara Sayeed:I'd love to follow up on what Joe just said, you know, he used the phrase, collectively bring, right and that's really what this is an Illinois. If you look at Illinois, historically, we have a very rich African American heritage from the Great Migration all the way through today. layer that with the immigrant and refugee communities that have come across the last 150 years, because Illinois has been often a welcoming community. layer that with, you know, snapshots and information about other communities that are coming for different reasons. And what you have is an extremely diverse collective, every race, class, faith, background of American Muslims, exists in Illinois, across the state, in counties across what is often you know, what we will call the north, but also bordering on the south of America, because remember, the southern tip of Illinois, hits Kentucky and Missouri and in other states. And so what we have here is a snapshot of Illinois is a snapshot of America. A snapshot of Illinois Muslims is a snapshot of American Muslims, and wherever you are in the nation, this then becomes valid valuable to you. It's a collective community. That is an extremely important snapshot
Joe Hoereth:Dilara, I think that's incredibly important to stress for the, again, thinking about the broader value of this research. I think this is a model that can be picked up, replicated, improved upon tweaked or whatever customized to states around the country. And I'm really glad that it's part of it's part of his pew, which is well positioned to I think do that. And, and then I think the potential for being able to compile this data across states, even if there's some some differences in, in the questions that are asked in different places, or the approaches or whatever, because, again, we know that mainstream methods and historical methods for gathering this for gathering data about the Muslim community don't don't provide a complete picture or don't really do a good job of targeting the Muslim community in any way. And so I think this serves as a really great potential model to follow in other places. And I think that's, that's really one of the benefits of it. The second thing is, there are many alternatives to gathering data. But it's, it's really expensive to gather this kind of data. And so having an infrastructure in place that can do it and can do it well, and can do it regularly, is really helpful for the Muslim community nationally. And I almost see it as a network, right, ultimately, of partnerships, that are gathering this kind of data that can be parsed in so many different ways and compared in different ways across states, and lessons can be learned and adapted from different places as well. You know, what, what did Illinois do in response to this survey? Well, maybe the next time Massachusetts is doing that, or a region is doing its own survey in and responding it in a similar way. So the power nationally is really there for this kind of model to feed up into that that national model.
Dilara Sayeed:Dalia, to Joe's point, we know the top 10 states that identify as having large per capita Muslim populations, it wouldn't it be awesome if we had a report like this and every one of those 10 states, we would understand this community that is often invisible, and certainly misunderstood in ways that were so valuable to everyone.
Dalia Mogahed:So based on the needs and assets of Illinois, Muslims identified in this report, what would be recommendations you'd make to Illinois community leaders, policymakers, as well as allies to address these needs?
Joe Hoereth:For me, just in our comments, so far, we've heard over and over again, the power, the power, the power that this has. And so I think my recommendation to policymakers, community leaders and so on is use this. I mean, there, there's really useful information. Maybe it's one or two questions or something, or maybe it's the whole set, but, you know, consume this report, understand how it relates to what your work is, and then use it strategically to really create a narrative that is, that is from the Muslim community and not about it, by, you know, a mainstream or other sorts of media or whatever that you know, a lot of times when you have marginalized communities, the attention is focused when there is a problem or the attention is focused when there is an issue. And as Dilara said so eloquently, Muslim Americans are Americans. And so just like any other community or any other voice that tells its story, from its perspective, I think that would be my advice to the leaders to Muslim leaders and elected officials, policy makers and faith leaders, is you already have a voice. This is now something that you can utilize in uplifting and projecting
Dalia Mogahed:Dilara, what do you think?
Unknown:Know us, right? See us, serve us, and utilize our assets and expertise. I'd want to say that to all stakeholders, internally and externally, that are engaged and are willing to learn from this report. For our faith leaders, I would say look at the data. This is objective data about our community done by trusted leaders and researchers at UIC and at ISPU, you look at the data and what it's telling us about the needs of our own community, about the inclusion in our community, and about the stresses about our community, and build programs to support our community individuals and families, to policymakers, I would say bring us to the table. So we can tell our story through both anecdotal storytelling, as well as data driven storytelling. And then you can have funding programs and policies that are made for us and with us. So we are at the table telling our stories and showing you our data. And then of course, I would like our community, elected officials and public officials to understand our communities that you're serving, you know, we talk about serving our constituents, while we are your constituents, we are swing voters in some areas, strong voters in other areas, and quiet in other spaces. Engage with us so that you know our communities and then that way, you can actually serve all your constituents in the way that you hope to. So no us, see us, serve us and utilize our expertise and our assets. And that's really why ISPU exists is to inform important dialogue and decisions about the American Muslim community and this report is front and center and in fulfilling that mission. So thank you both so much, and I'm excited to hear feedback from our readers about a report.
Katherine Coplen:Thank you, Dalia, Dilara, and Joe for sharing your knowledge and insights on this new report. To access the Illinois Muslims report, visit ISPU.org backslash Illinois dash Muslims. You can find additional resources from ISPU and our report partners the Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition and the Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement in the show notes of this episode. Subscribe to Deep Dives with ISPU wherever podcasts are found and leave us a review so we can continue to produce conversations like this one. To keep up with our research, sign up for our newsletter@ispu.org backslash sign-up and follow us on social media. We're on Facebook at theISPU on Twitter at theISPU and on Instagram at the_ISPU. Thank you and see you next time.