Description
Book SynopsisSomalis are one of the most chastised Muslim communities in Europe. Depicted in the news as victims of female genital mutilation, perpetrators of gang violence, or more recently, as radical Islamists, Somalis have been cast as a threat to social cohesion, national identity, and security in Britain and beyond. Somali, Muslim, British shifts attention away from these public representations to provide a detailed ethnographic study of Somali Muslim women's engagements with religion, political discourses, and public culture in the United Kingdom. The book chronicles the aspirations of different generations of Somali women as they respond to publicly charged questions of what it means to be Muslim, Somali, and British. By challenging and reconfiguring the dominant political frameworks in which they are immersed, these women imagine new ways of being in securitized Britain. Giulia Liberatore provides a nuanced account of Islamic piety, arguing that it needs to be understood as one among many
Trade ReviewIn this fine ethnography, Giulia Liberatore traces Somali women’s explorations of their Islamic tradition across generations and across London, as they critically assess diverse teachers and preachers. All those interested in Muslims in the West should read this lucid and penetrating analysis. * John R. Bowen, Washington University in St. Louis, USA *
At the heart of this ethnography lies the ways in which Somali women in London strive to embody new forms of moral Muslim womanhood in an environment that, even as it offers opportunities, also stereotypes and others them. Thoughtfully conceptualized and contextualized, skilfully woven into the wider historiographies on Somalia and the Somali and Muslim diaspora, and couched in vivid and accessible language, this book is a must-read for specialist and general readers alike. * Lidwien Kapteijns, Wellesley College, USA *
In this important and detailed contribution, Liberatore very much gives the floor to her research participants. What emerges perhaps challenges some of the conventional thought around Islam and Muslims in Britain, and certainly ensures that British Somali Muslims cannot be an afterthought in British Muslim identity politics or research agendas. * Nasar Meer, University of Edinburgh, UK *
Table of ContentsList of FiguresAcknowledgmentsNote on Language1. Introduction2. An Ethnography with Somali Women in London3. Memories of Modern Mogadishu4. Tuition Centres and Somali Mosques: Raising Good Daughters in London5. Updating Soomaalinimo: Young Somalis and the Problematization of Culture6. Mosque Hopping: Seeking Islamic Knowledge in London7. Multiculturalism, British Values, and the Muslim Subject8. Imagining an Ideal Husband9. Beyond PreventReferencesIndex
