Muslim Youth and Palestine

Muslim youth are experiencing a range of emotions during the current genocide being conducted by Israel against Palestinians. Our team for the Building Blocks Tarbiya project  was able to glean a preliminary insight into their emotions and responses to this genocide through a unique research opportunity. In September 2023, the project team launched data collection for a longitudinal research study on character development amongst Muslim youth. During this data collection period, Israel escalated its genocide attempts against Palestine. We were getting a lot of feedback from our community partners and organizations about how the conflict was impacting Muslim youth. In order to provide youth the space to express how they are feeling, we added open-ended questions to our survey to allow youth to reflect on their current lived experiences and describe how their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors may have changed as a result of the current events.

The response was overwhelming. Although the response rate for open-ended questions is often very low in research studies, we experienced a 82% response rate–out of 521 youth who completed the larger survey, about 425 youth responded to the question about Palestine. A preliminary review of youth’s responses show that Muslim American adolescents are filled with fear, pain, and helplessness. Youth are also experiencing positive character traits and emotions such as gratitude for the blessings they have in their life as well as motivation to improve their lives and engage in activism and civic participation. Sample responses are provided below. About 54% youth reported that they have been impacted a lot by the genocide (on a 4 point likert scale).

Also, The FYI recognizes that the difficulties of Muslim youth expressed in this survey are only a small reflection of the magnitude of pain experienced by the Gazan people. Our aim in sharing these survey responses is to recognize that, as part of a global Ummah, youth in the USA are impacted as they witness these atrocities. While our ability to change the situation in Gaza may be limited, we can ensure that our young people are supported as they navigate these challenging times.

Although this project is funded by the John Templeton Foundation, the views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.