The Center for Religion, Culture and Community hosted a talk by Loren D. Lybarger on "Religion and Identity among Palestinians in Chicago" on February 3, 2014. Professor Lybarger presented the stories of three Palestinian Muslims living in Chicago's Palestinian immigrant community on the southwest side and in the southwest suburbs.
Each story exemplifies, ideal-typically, a particular trajectory that an individual has taken in negotiating being religious and national identity. One person grows up going to the mosque schools but ends up working in a community center started by Marxists and secular pan-Arab nationalists. A second individual grows up in the bosom of the secular-nationals it milieu but ends up working, at least temporarily, for the mosques and for a city-wide Islamic advocacy organization. A third individual grows up the son of a PLO ambassador but ends up embracing a transnational Islam through his interactions with black nationalist Muslims on city's south side. I end by raising question sabot what, in the light of these stories, being Muslim and being Palestinian might mean.