Being Young and Muslim: New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780195369212)

"This is an excellent collection of essays on youth in a number of Muslim majority (and minority) societies in the context of globalization and modernity. A particular strength of this volume is its ability to highlight the multiple and contested roles of religion and personal faith in the fashioning of contemporary youthful Muslim identities. Such insights often challenge secular Western master narratives of modernity and suggest credible reconceptualizations of what it means to be young and modern in a broad swath of the world today."

-- Asma Afsaruddin, Professor of Islamic Studies, Indiana University

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of interest in youth issues and Muslim youth in particular. Young Muslims have been thrust into the global spotlight in relation to questions about security and extremism, work and migration, and rights and citizenship. This book interrogates the cultures and politics of Muslim youth in the global South and North to understand their trajectories, conditions, and choices. Drawing on wide-ranging research from Indonesia to Iran and Germany to the U.S., it shows that while the majority of young Muslims share many common social, political, and economic challenges, they exhibit remarkably diverse responses to them. Far from being "exceptional," young Muslims often have as much in common with their non-Muslim global generational counterparts as they share among themselves. As they migrate, forge networks, innovate in the arts, master the tools of new media, and assert themselves in the public sphere, Muslim youth have emerged as important cultural and political actors on a world stage.

Author: Asef Bayat
ISBN-10: 0195369211
ISBN-13: 9780195369212
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Language: English
Published: 08/19/2010
Pages: 448
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.76lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 03/01/2011