Young Muslim America

Faith, Community, and Belonging

Muna Ali

Engages debates about Muslim American youth identity, including immigrant and convert perspectives
Examines intra-Muslim American community tensions across gender, age, and ethnoracial lines
Explores Muslim American culture in music, literature, and civic and political activism

Young Muslim America

Faith, Community, and Belonging

Muna Ali

Description

Young Muslim America explores the perspectives and identities of the American descendants of immigrant Muslims and converts to Islam. Whether their parents were new Muslims or new Americans, the younger generations of Muslim Americans grow up bearing a dual heritage and are uniquely positioned to expand the meaning of both.

In this ethnographic study, Muna Ali explores the role of Muslim Americans within America and the ummah through four dominant narratives that emerge in the cultural discussions about and among Muslims. Cultural differences can cause an identity crisis among young Muslims torn between seemingly irreconcilable Islamic and Western heritages. Additionally, culture presumably contaminates a "pure" Islam and underlies all that divides Muslim America's diverse subgroups. Some propose creating an American Muslim culture and identity to overcome these challenges. But in this historical moment when Muslims have become America's newest "problem people" and political wedge, some Americans are suspicious of this identity and fear a Muslim cultural takeover and the "Islamization of America." Situating these discussions in the fields of identity, immigration, American studies, and the anthropology of Islam, Ali examines how younger Muslims see themselves, their faith community, and their society, and how that informs their daily life and helps them envision an American future.

Young Muslim America

Faith, Community, and Belonging

Muna Ali

Young Muslim America

Faith, Community, and Belonging

Muna Ali

Author Information

Muna Ali, Faculty Associate, Arizona State University

Muna Ali is a Faculty Associate at the School of Political and Global Studies of Arizona State University.

Young Muslim America

Faith, Community, and Belonging

Muna Ali

Reviews and Awards

"[A]nyone looking for a broad introduction to contemporary Muslim American life, with an emphasis on young adults, will find Ali's book a welcome resource." - Michael T. McLaughlin, Reading Religion

"a multi-layered, multi-disciplinary work that delivers a snapshot of American Muslim life, grounded in history and theory ... Ali's work is a welcome contribution to the study of Muslims in America, both for its substance and its method. She covers a large amount of information through a strong framework that keeps the material from becoming overwhelming ... this book is a good introduction to the issues facing American Muslims which incorporates a wide array of disciplines and sources. It should be a valuable option for use in Islam in America classes." - Hussein Rashid, American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences

"Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in mosques, religious groups, and activist organizations, survey data, and interviews, Ali provides a nuanced image of her interlocutors' lives, communities, and religious, social or cultural activities. She depicts their challenges within Muslim and larger societal contexts, offers ethnographic glimpses of their family lives, school, or work contexts and spheres of religious involvement, and illustrates the challenging and often opposing forces that characterize young Muslims' quests for belonging and citizenship." - Petra Kuppinger, Journal of Religious & Theological Information