From The San Francisco Foundation
May 15, 2013 by tsff
For Immediate Release
Contact: Cole Krawitz, ckrawitz@sff.org, 415.733.8509
First Benchmark Study on Bay Area Muslim Community, One of Nation’s Largest, Finds Broad Diversity, Economic Gaps, Institutional Need
(SAN FRANCISCO) — Wednesday, May 15, 2013 — A new study, the first of its kind to provide a broad assessment of the Bay Area Muslim community, finds that Muslims across all walks of life continue to face entrenched Islamophobia more than 11 years after 9/11.
The Bay Area is home to one of the largest, most diverse Muslim populations in the U.S., with nearly 250,000 Muslims living in the six counties surrounding San Francisco.
While the study shows that the regional Muslim community is very diverse, socioeconomically and culturally, one challenge shared by virtually all of its members is a “heightened sense of Islamophobia,” says one of the principal researchers.
“More than a decade after 9/11, we see that Muslims of all ethnicities and backgrounds are still dealing with a lot of anxiety, a lot of fear, a lot of bias,” said Dr. Hatem Bazian, a professor at UC Berkeley and one of the study’s principal researchers. “Unfortunately, the tragic events in Boston won’t help the problem.”
The Bay Area Muslim Study: Establishing Community and Identity finds that across the region, Muslims struggle with widespread discrimination, negative portrayals in the media, and a sense of being “double minorities” due to their ethnic and religious backgrounds — despite the fact that many Muslim immigrants settled in the Bay Area because of its reputation for cultural tolerance.
The study, the first to provide a broad look at a community that has experienced “meteoric growth,” finds that Muslims make up some 3.5 percent of the region’s total population.
The study’s key findings also include:
- The Muslim community is incredibly diverse, ranging from new immigrants from various world conflicts, to highly educated and well established professionals, to native-born Muslims and recent converts, among many others.
- As a whole, the Muslim community suffers from a significant socio-economic gap, with median household income below the Bay Area average.
- Huge disparities exist within the community as well. While a highly educated, highly paid segment of the community exists — largely in Silicon Valley — a disproportionate number of Muslims live below the poverty line, particularly in San Francisco and Alameda County.
- South Asian Muslims have the highest incomes in the community, with nearly half having household income above $100,000.
- Among immigrant Muslims, 67 percent speak at least three languages.
- The institutional support — the mosques, nonprofit organizations and government agencies required to serve any community — is still underdeveloped.
- Charitable giving is a core value among a vast majority of Bay Area Muslims, with almost two thirds of those surveyed identifying as civically engaged.
- Poorer Muslims, particularly clusters of refugees living in larger cities, are particularly vulnerable.
“Refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have tremendous needs,” Dr. Bazian said. “They’re often clustered in public housing complexes or dense areas of the inner city, and the resources are just lacking. We need to invest in our communities.”
