BOOK
Muslim Spaces of Hope
Tahir Abbas | M. A. Kevin Brice | Raj Brown | Ayona Datta | Professor Kevin Dunn | Claire Dwyer | Fodil Fadli | Peter Hopkins | Professor Reina Lewis | Hilary Lim | Sarah Mills | Jane Pollard | Professor Ziauddin Sardar | Magda Sibley | Selcuk R. Sirin | Varun Uberoi | Selen Imamoglu | Richard Phillips
(2009)
Additional Information
Book Details
Abstract
Debates about contemporary Islam and Muslims in the West have taken some negative turns in the depressing atmosphere of the war on terror and its aftermath. This book argues that we have been too preoccupied with problems, not enough with solutions.
The increased mobilisation and scrutiny of Muslim identities has taken place in the context of a more general recasting of racial ideas and racism: a shift from overtly racial to ostensibly ethnic and cultural including religious categories within discourses of social difference. The targeting of Muslims has been associated with new forms of an older phenomenon: imperialism. New divisions between Muslims and others echo colonial binaries of black and white, colonised and coloniser, within practices of divide and rule.
This book speaks to others who have been marginalised and colonised, and to wider debates about social difference, oppression and liberation.
'This is a very important and interesting book. When talking about "Muslims in the West" one understands, through the different authors and approaches, that the main challenges are neither religious nor theological, and that it is time to speak out about issues such as racism, mistrust, unemployment, discrimination and empowerment. The West and Muslims will only be able to create true 'spaces of hope' by addressing the real challenges, and this is why this book is precious and relevant.'
Tariq Ramadan, Oxford University
'As the scaremongering and counter-productive thinking that accompanied the "war on terror" makes way, this timely book offers much needed authoritative insights and nuanced ideas to replace the ignorance of fear with the spaces of hope.'
Asim Siddiqui, The City Circle
'Timely and hopeful...moving beyond the trope of victim or threat this collection shows Muslims engaging constructively and critically with many aspects of British society whether commerce, finance, charities or anti-war movements. It also points to the willingness of institutions, from scouting to housing associations, to adapt and make space for Muslim needs.'
Philip Lewis, University of Bradford
'The essays in this innovative volume variously recast, in convivial terms, the collaborative contexts that produce Muslim and Islamic spatialities in western countries. In transcending the stale vocabularies of "segregation" and "integration", this excellent interdisciplinary book uses the tools of academic critique to not only debunk myths, but inspire hope. A genuine achievement for mobilizing public debate that is both honest and optimistic.'
Kay Anderson, University of Western Sydney
'Muslim Spaces of Hope provides a much needed positive contribution to academic discussions about Muslims in Britain. As well as interrogating a range of challenges that Muslims in the UK face on a daily basis the book highlights encouraging circumstances; points of compatibility, communication and cohesion; offers solutions and therefore the "spaces of hope" asserted in the title. An area of considerable deficit in the subject literature, this book recasts the debate within an optimistic and spatial framework.'
ELizabeth Poole, Staffordshire University
'The book explores Muslim participation beyond rigid binary discourses of Identity politics, socio-economic depravation and "civilisation clashes" and instead charts positive Muslim engagement and social interaction from the global to the local. The publication is an invaluable resource for students of Islamic, cultural and postcolonial studies, geography, ethnicity and race, politics and sociology. It should also become required reading for anyone interested in the field of Islam and Muslims in the West.'
Mohammad Seddon, University of Chester
Richard Phillips teaches postcolonial criticism and cultural geography at the University of Liverpool, where he is Reader in Geography. His publications include Mapping Men and Empire: A Geography of Adventure (1997), Sex, Politics and Empire: A Postcolonial Geography (2006), and the co-edited Decentring Sexualities: Politics and Representations Beyond the Metropolis (2000). He is also the author of a series of articles for journals and magazines ranging from the Annals of the Association of American Geographers and Antipode: a Radical Journal of Geography, to Race & Class, and Red Pepper.
Table of Contents
Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
---|---|---|---|
About the editor | i | ||
Illustrations | vii | ||
Tables | vii | ||
Acknowledgements | viii | ||
Introduction: Muslim geographies – spaces of hope? | 1 | ||
Muslim geographies | 3 | ||
Spaces of hope? | 6 | ||
References | 9 | ||
Part One | Spaces of Hope? | 11 | ||
1 | Spaces of hope: interventions | 13 | ||
Segregation | 13 | ||
Integration | 19 | ||
Britishness | 20 | ||
Multiculturalism | 23 | ||
Reference | 26 | ||
2 | Muslims in the West: deconstructing geographical binaries | 27 | ||
‘The West’ versus ‘the Muslim Rest’ | 28 | ||
Table 2.1 Closed and open views of Islam | 29 | ||
Segregation versus integration | 31 | ||
Absent or demonized images versus positive representations | 34 | ||
Opening up spaces of hope | 36 | ||
Conclusion | 38 | ||
References | 39 | ||
3 | The hopeful and exclusionary politics of Islam in Australia: looking for alternative geographies of ‘Western Islam’ | 41 | ||
Muslims in Australia: settlement, issues and international trends in attitudes | 43 | ||
The politics of anti-Islamic sentiment | 45 | ||
Australian Muslims’ everyday experiences of racism | 48 | ||
Australian Muslims’ hopes and expectations | 50 | ||
Figure 3.1 Posters developed by Australians Against Racism Inc. | 54 | ||
Figure 3.2 Anti-Islamophobia poster developed by the Islamic Women’s Welfare Council of Victoria | 55 | ||
Sources and spaces of hope | 57 | ||
Figure 3.3 The Gallipoli Mosque | 61 | ||
Conclusions | 63 | ||
References | 64 | ||
Part Two | Convivial Cities | 67 | ||
4 | Veils and sales: Muslims and the spaces of post-colonial fashion retail | 69 | ||
Dress as a spatialized practice | 72 | ||
Veiling as a spatial system | 74 | ||
Dress as a temporal practice: veiling, shopping and non-Western modernities | 75 | ||
Regulating bodies in space: shop dress codes | 77 | ||
Conclusion: selling spaces | 79 | ||
Notes | 81 | ||
References | 82 | ||
5 | Citizenship and faith: Muslim scout groups | 85 | ||
Geographies of Muslim youth | 86 | ||
The space of youth (citizenship) movements | 87 | ||
Creating Muslim Scouting spaces: the Muslim Scout Fellowship | 88 | ||
‘Duty to Allah’: 1st Cathays (Al-Huda) Scout Group | 90 | ||
Ceremonial and sartorial Scouts | 92 | ||
Figure 5.1 Sartorial scouting | 95 | ||
Landscape and camping | 95 | ||
Figure 5.2 Pitching a tent | 97 | ||
Conclusion | 98 | ||
Notes | 100 | ||
References | 100 | ||
6 | The utopian space of the Islamic bathhouse or hammam | 104 | ||
The hammam or Islamic bathhouse | 105 | ||
Figure 6.1 Hammam al-Silsila, Damascus | 107 | ||
Figure 6.2 Hammam Tayrouzi, Damascus, the roofscape | 107 | ||
Figure 6.3 Entrance of Hammam Sahib al-Tabaa’, Tunis | 107 | ||
Figure 6.4 Hammam Malikal-Thaher, Damascus | 109 | ||
Figure 6.5 Hammam Sahib al-Tabaa’, Tunis, al-wastani | 110 | ||
Figure 6.6 A Cairo hammam, the hot room | 110 | ||
Figure 6.7 Hammam Bashtak, Cairo | 115 | ||
The hammam and the West | 111 | ||
Figure 6.7 Hammam Bashtak, Cairo | 114 | ||
Decline, revival and hope | 115 | ||
Figure 6.8 Hammam Sahib al-Tabaa’, Tunis, the dome | 117 | ||
Notes | 117 | ||
References | 118 | ||
7 | Making space for Muslims: housing Bangladeshi families in East London | 120 | ||
Bangladeshi/Bengali Muslim identities in Britain and the West | 122 | ||
Housing Bangladeshis in East London | 124 | ||
Figure 7.1 Adoption of Georgian layout to new social housing | 126 | ||
Figure 7.2 Terraced house on Pritchard’s Road | 128 | ||
‘Respectable’ citizens | 128 | ||
Spaces of hope? | 134 | ||
Notes | 135 | ||
References | 135 | ||
Part Three | Economic and Political Empowerment | 137 | ||
8 | Muslim economic initiatives: global finance and local projects | 139 | ||
Part I: Islamic economic philanthropy and awqaf | 140 | ||
Part II: The empirical context | 144 | ||
Table 8.1 Proportions of Muslims by ethnic group, England and Wales and London | 145 | ||
Table 8.2 Economic activity of men and women aged 16–24, London | 146 | ||
Table 8.3 Economic activity of people aged 16–24, London | 147 | ||
Table 8.4 Economic activity of people aged 25 and older, London | 147 | ||
Part III: Awqaf and economic regeneration in London? | 148 | ||
Conclusion | 156 | ||
Notes | 157 | ||
References | 159 | ||
9 | Muslims and the anti-war movements | 163 | ||
Islamophobia and resistance: bridging East and West | 163 | ||
Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain | 166 | ||
What kind of partnership? | 168 | ||
Critics of the coalition | 169 | ||
The end of the partnership | 172 | ||
Legacies and prospects | 174 | ||
Notes | 176 | ||
References | 178 | ||
10 | Liberalizing Islam: creating Brits of the Islamic persuasion | 179 | ||
Islam and Islamism | 180 | ||
States of secularism | 181 | ||
Muslim Britons | 183 | ||
Multiculturalism, faith organizations and neoliberal governance\r | 184 | ||
Searching for the right partner | 187 | ||
‘Proper’ Islam | 191 | ||
Hopes and fears | 192 | ||
Notes | 195 | ||
References | 197 | ||
Part Four | Integration and Resistance | 199 | ||
11 | British Muslims and ‘community cohesion’ debates | 201 | ||
Community cohesion: a new approach to multicultural policy? | 202 | ||
Community cohesion | 202 | ||
The emergence of community cohesion policy | 205 | ||
Community cohesion and Muslims | 210 | ||
Conclusion | 217 | ||
Notes | 218 | ||
References | 219 | ||
12 | Residential integration: evidence from the UK census | 222 | ||
Statistical analysis of integration and segregation | 224 | ||
Table 12.1 Breakdown of Muslim ethnic groups | 225 | ||
Table 12.2 Distribution of Muslim ethnic groups (by local authority) | 225 | ||
Table 12.3 Reasons for choosing current area of residence | 228 | ||
Residential clustering | 229 | ||
Rethinking the relationship between segregation and integration | 230 | ||
Conclusion | 232 | ||
Table 12.4 Frequency of social mixing with people from different ethnic groups | 233 | ||
Figures | vii | ||
References | 234 | ||
13 | Muslim-American hyphenated identity: negotiating a positive path | 236 | ||
Muslim-Americans: a demographic portrait | 237 | ||
How young people in the United States construct apositive identity as Muslim-Americans | 241 | ||
Figure 13.1 ‘Identity map’ drawn by young Muslim-Americans | 242 | ||
Figure 13.2 ‘Identity map’ drawn by young Muslim-Americans | 243 | ||
Comparison and conclusion | 247 | ||
References | 249 | ||
14 | ‘After 7/7’: challenging the dominant hegemony | 252 | ||
Islamophobia and its shifting contours | 253 | ||
Lobbying government and establishing political space | 255 | ||
The way ahead | 260 | ||
Note | 261 | ||
References | 261 | ||
Notes on contributors | 263 | ||
Index | 266 |