Description
Book SynopsisThe area of Los Angeles known as South Central is often overshadowed by dismal stereotypes, problematic racial stigmas, and its status as the home to some of the city's poorest and most violent neighborhoods. Amid South Central's shifting demographics and its struggles with poverty, sociologist Pamela J. Prickett takes a closer look, focusing on the members of an African American Muslim community and exploring how they help each other combat poverty, job scarcity, violence, and racial injustice. Prickett's engaging ethnography relates how believers in this longstanding religious community see Islam as a way of life, a comprehensive blueprint for individual and collective action, guiding how to interact with others, conduct business, strive for progress, and cultivate faith. Prickett offers deep insights into the day-to-day lived religion of the Muslims who call this community home, showing how the mosque provides a system of social support and how believers deepen their spiritual prac
Trade Review"Smart and highly original, Believing in South Central details how a small Muslim community in South Central, Los Angeles, makes meaning of their faith in the midst of a changing racial landscape and a declining community of believers. Prickett brings nuanced analysis, beautiful prose, and seamless narration together in this ethnography that will expand scholars' understanding of how African Americans practice their Islamic faith outside Arab and South Asian Muslim communities."--Ula Y. Taylor, author of The Promise of Patriarchy: Women and the Nation of Islam
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Living a Muslim Way of Life in South Central
Chapter One: “Our Test Is Living a Community Life”
Chapter Two: “Don’t Move. Improve”
Chapter Three: “Money Is Funny”
Chapter Four: “Why Not Just Use a Cucumber!”
Chapter Five: “That’s What They Think of Us”
Conclusion: “Allahu Akbar”
Methods Appendix
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
