“A Rush to Judgment”: Historicizing the Emergence of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as an Islamic Counterpublic in the U.S. Public Sphere Pre-9/11

Abstract

This article historicizes the emergence of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as an Islamic counterpublic in the U.S. public sphere prior to 9/11. The study analyzes how CAIR functioned as an Islamic counterpublic to contest entrenched Islamophobic rhetorics that positioned Muslims as collective threats to U.S. public safety. It highlights how CAIR performed counterpublic rhetorical moves by using oppositional interpretations to construct Muslim ethos and moral identities; coalitional rhetoric to highlight Muslims’ civic engagement; and world-making to advance new ways of seeing Muslims. The study provides a critical history to CAIR’s contemporary advocacy, contributing to scholarship on Islamic/Muslim counterpublicity.