Explores how Muslim Americans test the boundaries of American pluralism
In 2004, the al-Islah Islamic Center in Hamtramck, Michigan, set off a contentious controversy when it requested permission to use loudspeakers to broadcast the adhan, or Islamic call to prayer. The issue gained international notoriety when media outlets from around the world flocked to the city to report on what had become a civil battle between religious tolerance and Islamophobic sentiment. The Hamtramck council voted unanimously to allow mosques to broadcast the adhan, making it one of the few US cities to officially permit it through specific legislation.
Muslim American City explores how debates over Muslim Americans' use of both public and political space have challenged and ultimately reshaped the boundaries of urban belonging. Drawing on more than ten years of ethnographic research in Hamtramck, which boasts one of the largest concentrations of Muslim residents of any American city, Alisa Perkins shows how the Muslim American population has grown and asserted itself in public life. She explores, for example, the efforts of Muslim American women to maintain gender norms in neighborhoods, mosques, and schools, as well as Muslim Americans' efforts to organize public responses to municipal initiatives. Her in-depth fieldwork incorporates the perspectives of both Muslims and non-Muslims, including Polish Catholics, African American Protestants, and other city residents.
Drawing particular attention to Muslim American expressions of religious and cultural identity in civil life-particularly in response to discrimination and stereotyping-Perkins questions the popular assumption that the religiosity of Muslim minorities hinders their capacity for full citizenship in secular societies. She shows how Muslims and non-Muslims have, through their negotiations over the issues over the use of space, together invested Muslim practice with new forms of social capital and challenged nationalist and secularist notions of belonging.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"Perkins lays out the demographic history of the city and delves into gender among American Muslims generally before exploring aspects of Bangladeshi and Yemeni women in Hamtramck. Finally, she wades into municipal issues affecting Muslims, specifically controversies over the broadcast of the call to prayer and LGBTQ rights. The topical coverage of this work is unique." (CHOICE) "Muslim American City tells a complicated but important story of the expression of minority religious and civic identity in a US city. The book makes significant interventions in ongoing conversations about gender, sexuality, and Islam and the politics of religious freedom in the United States." (Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses) "Meticulously researched and written ... Written for a broad audience, Muslim American City is particularly suitable for those interested in questions of liberalism and religious pluralism in the United States." (Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations) "A timely book that answers questions in many important arenas ranging from pluralism and boundary work, to racialization and gender identity... Perkins shows those interested in the sociology of religion a new frontier, one in which we may consider the broader implications of our work in the context of the urban environment." (Sociology of Religion) "This theoretically strong volume offers a multifaceted look at how Muslims have made an ideological and political place for themselves in Hamtramck, a small town in the Detroit metro area ... Combining sophisticated theory with solid ethnography, the result is a monograph that reveals the limitations of the standard frameworks that Americans use to understand and navigate racial, religious, and ethnic difference." (Religion) "Being mindful of the fluid nature of ethnic identity, Muslim American City portrays different aspects of Muslims' social lives in the Detroit metropolitan area, providing examples of how multicultural communities can provide opportunities for inclusion in a secular society. The reality that people from different cultures and with distinct values can and do expand their boundaries and fruitfully engage in everyday social exchanges across ethnic boundaries." - Mehri 'Mehrsa' Mohebbi, University of Florida (Journal of Urban Affairs)
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Illustrationen
3 black and white illustrations
ISBN-13
978-1-4798-1449-7 (9781479814497)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Alisa Perkins is Associate Professor in the Department of Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University. Her research on Muslim American civic engagement in Metro Detroit has been supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and the National Science Foundation. Perkins' earlier Fulbright research centered on Muslim women's education and family law in Morocco.
