Muslim Diasporas in the West
Tahir Abbas
Routledge, 2017
https://www.routledge.com/Muslim-Diasporas-in-the-West/Abbas/p/book/9781138187955
This major works collection surveys the nature of Muslim diasporas in
the west from a sociological perspective, exploring the issues of
migration, integration, identity, politics, Islamophobia, and
radicalisation.
This four-volume collected works is the state of the art on the research
and scholarship on Muslim diasporas in the West carried out over the
last four decades. From canonical works to the latest trends in study,
these contributions have added to the understanding of ethnicity,
equality and diversity in relation to Muslims in the west. These
articles explore the philosophies of multiculturalism, integration, and
interculturalism. They also analyse issues of identity politics,
Islamophobia, and radicalisation. The research carried out on Muslims in
the west has had a significant impact on the study of Muslim minorities
in other parts of the world. This major works collection suitably
captures the significance of past research and its importance for
further scholarship in relation to Muslims and Islam across Europe,
North America, and Australia.
https://www.routledge.com/Muslim-Diasporas-in-the-West/Abbas/p/book/9781138187955

The Politics and Practice of Religious Diversity: National Contexts,
Global Issues
Edited by Andrew Dawson
Routledge 2016
https://www.routledge.com/The-Politics-and-Practice-of-Religious-Diversity-National-Contexts-Global/Dawson/p/book/9781138791817
The Politics and Practice of Religious Diversity engages with one of the
most characteristic features of modern society. An increasingly
prominent and potentially contentious phenomenon, religious diversity is
intimately associated with contemporary issues such as migration, human
rights, social cohesion, socio-cultural pluralisation, political
jurisdiction, globalisation, and reactionary belief systems.
This edited collection of specially-commissioned chapters provides an
unrivalled geographical coverage and multidisciplinary treatment of the
socio-political processes and institutional practices provoked by, and
associated with, religious diversity. Alongside chapters treating
religious diversity in the ‘BRIC’ countries of Brazil, Russia, India and
China, are contributions which discuss Australia, Finland, Mexico, South
Africa, the UK, and the United States.
This book provides an accessible, distinctive and timely treatment of a
topic which is inextricably linked with modern society’s progressively
diverse and global trajectory. Written and structured as an accessible
volume for the student reader, this book is of immediate interest to
both academics and laypersons working in mainstream and political
sociology, sociology of religion, human geography, politics, area
studies, migration studies and religious studies.

The Politics and Practice of Religious Diversity: National Contexts,
Global Issues
Edited by Andrew Dawson
Routledge 2016
https://www.routledge.com/The-Politics-and-Practice-of-Religious-Diversity-National-Contexts-Global/Dawson/p/book/9781138791817
The Politics and Practice of Religious Diversity engages with one of the
most characteristic features of modern society. An increasingly
prominent and potentially contentious phenomenon, religious diversity is
intimately associated with contemporary issues such as migration, human
rights, social cohesion, socio-cultural pluralisation, political
jurisdiction, globalisation, and reactionary belief systems.
This edited collection of specially-commissioned chapters provides an
unrivalled geographical coverage and multidisciplinary treatment of the
socio-political processes and institutional practices provoked by, and
associated with, religious diversity. Alongside chapters treating
religious diversity in the ‘BRIC’ countries of Brazil, Russia, India and
China, are contributions which discuss Australia, Finland, Mexico, South
Africa, the UK, and the United States.
This book provides an accessible, distinctive and timely treatment of a
topic which is inextricably linked with modern society’s progressively
diverse and global trajectory. Written and structured as an accessible
volume for the student reader, this book is of immediate interest to
both academics and laypersons working in mainstream and political
sociology, sociology of religion, human geography, politics, area
studies, migration studies and religious studies.

James Richardson writes:

I have several hundred books on NRMs and soc of religion that I am willing to give up to a good home, given that I am retiring after 48 years at the university. I welcome suggestions about how my collection might be useful to others. I would regret just having to give them to some local charity.

Thanks,

Jim

jtr@unr.edu

Islam and Popular Culture

Edited by Karin van Nieuwkerk, Mark LeVine & Martin Stokes

   Popular culture serves as a fresh and revealing window on contemporary developments in the Muslim world because it is a site where many important and controversial issues are explored and debated. Aesthetic expression has become intertwined with politics and religion due to the uprisings of the “Arab Spring,” while, at the same time, Islamist authorities are showing increasingly accommodating and populist attitudes toward popular culture. Not simply a “westernizing” or “secularizing” force, as some have asserted, popular culture now plays a growing role in defining what it means to be Muslim.

With well-structured chapters that explain key concepts clearly, Islam and Popular Culture addresses new trends and developments that merge popular arts and Islam. Its eighteen case studies by eminent scholars cover a wide range of topics, such as lifestyle, dress, revolutionary street theater, graffiti, popular music, poetry, television drama, visual culture, and dance throughout the Muslim world from Indonesia, Africa, and the Middle East to Europe. The first comprehensive overview of this important subject, Islam and Popular Culture offers essential new ways of understanding the diverse religious discourses and pious ethics expressed in popular art productions, the cultural politics of states and movements, and the global flows of popular culture in the Muslim world.

University of Texas Press

April 2016

http://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/islam-and-popular-culture

New book just published: Line Nyhagen and Beatrice Halsaa (April 2016). Religion, Gender and Citizenship: Women of Faith, Gender Equality and Feminism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Through interviews with Christian and Muslim women in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom, this book explores intersections between religion, citizenship, gender and feminism. How do religious women think about citizenship, and how do they practice citizenship in everyday life? How important is faith in their lives, and how is religion bound up with other identities such as gender and nationality? What are their views on ‘gender equality’, women’s movements and feminism? The answers offered by this book are complex. Religion can be viewed as both a resource and a barrier to women’s participation. The interviewed women talk about citizenship in terms of participation, belonging, love, care, tolerance and respect. Nearly all want gender equality, but many regard such equality as compatible with different roles and spaces for women. Women’s movements are viewed as having made positive contributions to women’s status, but interviewees are also critical of claims related to abortion and divorce, and of feminism’s alleged selfish, unwomanly, anti-men and power-seeking stance. In the interviews, Christian privilege is largely invisible and silenced, while Muslim disadvantage is both visible and articulated. Line Nyhagen and Beatrice Halsaa unpack and make sense of these findings, discussing potential implications for the relationship between religion, gender and feminism.

Line Nyhagen is Reader in Sociology at Loughborough University, UK.

Beatrice Halsaa is Professor in Gender Studies at the University of Oslo, UK.

Reviews:

‘… a landmark contribution [and] essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the relation between religion, citizenship and women’s right and equality in the 21st century’ (Niamh Reilly, NUI Galway, Ireland).

‘This excellent book reveals the complexity of religious women’s lives in Europe and challenges generalisations made about, as well as by, religious women’ (Kristin Aune, Coventry University, UK).

For more information, see http://www.palgrave.com/uk/book/9781137405333#aboutBook

For a discount flyer (for individuals only), please write to L.Nyhagen@lboro.ac.uk

New book just published:

Line Nyhagen and Beatrice Halsaa (April 2016). Religion, Gender and Citizenship: Women of Faith, Gender Equality and Feminism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Through interviews with Christian and Muslim women in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom, this book explores intersections between religion, citizenship, gender and feminism. How do religious women think about citizenship, and how do they practice citizenship in everyday life? How important is faith in their lives, and how is religion bound up with other identities such as gender and nationality? What are their views on ‘gender equality’, women’s movements and feminism? The answers offered by this book are complex. Religion can be viewed as both a resource and a barrier to women’s participation. The interviewed women talk about citizenship in terms of participation, belonging, love, care, tolerance and respect. Nearly all want gender equality, but many regard such equality as compatible with different roles and spaces for women. Women’s movements are viewed as having made positive contributions to women’s status, but interviewees are also critical of claims related to abortion and

Line Nyhagen is Reader in Sociology at Loughborough University, UK.
Beatrice Halsaa is Professor in Gender Studies at the University of Oslo, UK.

Reviews:

‘… a landmark contribution [and] essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the relation between religion, citizenship and women’s rights and equality in the 21st century’ (Niamh Reilly, NUI Galway, Ireland).

‘This excellent book reveals the complexity of religious women’s lives in Europe and challenges generalisations made about, as well as by, religious women’ (Kristin Aune, Coventry University, UK).

For more information, see http://www.palgrave.com/uk/book/9781137405333#aboutBook

For a discount flyer (for individuals only), please write to L.Nyhagen@lboro.ac.uk

Sadek Hamid is pleased to announce the publication of my new book Sufis Salafis and Islamists: The Contested Ground of British Islamic Activism. It helps to explain how three globally influential religious paradigms have shaped the religiousity of second and third generation British Muslims as well as contextualising   current debates about religious radicalisation:

http://www.ibtauris.com/Books/Society%20%20social%20sciences/Politics%20%20government/Political%20ideologies/Religious%20%20theocratic%20ideologies/Sufis%20Salafis%20and%20Islamists%20The%20Contested%20Ground%20of%20British%20Islamic%20Activism.aspx

Contents:

Introduction

1.     ‘Taking Islam to the People’: The Young Muslims UK

2.      ‘Khilafah Coming Soon’: The Rise and Fall of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain

3.     ‘Returning to The Qur’an And Sunnah’: The Salafi Dawah

4.     Sufism Strikes Back: Emergence of the ‘Traditional Islam’ Network

5.     Dawah Discourses: Understanding the Appeal of the Trends

6.     Fragmentation and Adaptation: The Impact of Social Change

7.     Contemporary British Islamic Activism

Conclusion

Endorsements:

It is a pleasure to recommend  this book by one of the leading scholars of Islam in Britain. Sadek Hamid has the perfect combination of personal biography and experience, allied to academic rigour and attention to detail that makes this a nuanced, timely, well-informed contribution to debate about Islam in Britain today.

Prof. Sophie Gilliat-Ray. Author of Muslims in Britain: An Introduction

Sadek Hamid has written an invaluable study illuminating and evaluating the changing landscape of Islamic activism in Britain over the last thirty years. He devotes a chapter each to four faces of activism: reformist Islamist, radical pan-Islamist, Salafi and neo-Sufi. Their transnational origins, history, evolution and mutual rivalries are mapped and assessed in a measured, non-sensational and accessible manner. He also explores the extent to which they are positioned to respond appropriately to the experiences and questions of a new, media savvy generation of British Muslims. Indispensable for policy makers, academics, students and the general reader.

Dr Phil Lewis. Author of Young, Muslim and British

Sadek Hamid’s book is absolutely essential reading for anyone who wishes to further their knowledge of the dynamics of Islamic activism in Britain. It rescues Islamism from the rhetoric of terrorism and highlights the essential differences between ‘islamicisation’ and ‘radicalisation.’

Prof. Ron Geaves. Author of Islam in Victorian Britain: The Life and Times of Abdullah Quilliam

Readership:

Of interest to those who teach courses on Islam in the West, Muslims in Europe and Islam in Britain. It will also appeal to students and scholars of Religious Studies, Sociology, Anthropology and Cultural Studies.

Karsten Lehmann’s study on Religious NGOs in International Relations and the sedimentation of ‚the religious’ and ‚the secular’ has now been published with Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/products/9781138856356