Library Catalog

Keeping It Halal : The Everyday Lives of Muslim American Teenage Boys /

O'Brien, John

Keeping It Halal : The Everyday Lives of Muslim American Teenage Boys / John O'Brien. - 1 online resource (216 p.)

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface: Finding Everyday Muslim American Lives -- 1. The Culturally Contested Lives of Muslim Youth and American Teenagers -- 2. “Cool Piety”: How to Listen to Hip Hop as a Good Muslim -- 3. “The American Prayer”: Islamic Obligation and Discursive Individualism -- 4. “Keeping It Halal” and Dating While Muslim: Two Kinds of Muslim Romantic Relationships -- 5. On Being a Muslim in Public -- 6. Growing Up Muslim and American -- Appendix: The Legendz -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- References -- Index

restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

A compelling portrait of a group of boys as they navigate the complexities of being both American teenagers and good MuslimsThis book provides a uniquely personal look at the social worlds of a group of young male friends as they navigate the complexities of growing up Muslim in America. Drawing on three and a half years of intensive fieldwork in and around a large urban mosque, John O’Brien offers a compelling portrait of typical Muslim American teenage boys concerned with typical teenage issues—girlfriends, school, parents, being cool—yet who are also expected to be good, practicing Muslims who don’t date before marriage, who avoid vulgar popular culture, and who never miss their prayers.Many Americans unfamiliar with Islam or Muslims see young men like these as potential ISIS recruits. But neither militant Islamism nor Islamophobia is the main concern of these boys, who are focused instead on juggling the competing cultural demands that frame their everyday lives. O’Brien illuminates how they work together to manage their “culturally contested lives” through subtle and innovative strategies—such as listening to profane hip-hop music in acceptably “Islamic” ways, professing individualism to cast their participation in communal religious obligations as more acceptably American, dating young Muslim women in ambiguous ways that intentionally complicate adjudications of Islamic permissibility, and presenting a “low-key Islam” in public in order to project a Muslim identity without drawing unwanted attention.Closely following these boys as they move through their teen years together, Keeping It Halal sheds light on their strategic efforts to manage their day-to-day cultural dilemmas as they devise novel and dynamic modes of Muslim American identity in a new and changing America.


Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.


In English.

9780691197111 9781400888696

10.1515/9781400888696 doi


Muslim men--Social conditions.--United States
Muslim youth--Social conditions.--United States
Muslims--Cultural assimilation--United States.
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Islamic Studies.

Abdul. Adhan. Adolescence. Adult. African Americans. Alhamdulillah. Americans. Asr prayer. Bullying. Career. Courtship. Cultural identity. Cultural practice. Culture of the United States. Decision-making. Domestic violence. Enthusiasm. Ethnography. Everyday life. Fast food restaurant. Gender role. Graduate school. Gratitude. Hadith. Halal. Harassment. Headscarf. Hijab. Hip hop music. Hip hop. Homeland security. Iftar. Individualism. Ingroups and outgroups. Institution. Interfaith dialogue. Intimate relationship. Invocation. Islam in the United States. Islam. Islamic schools and branches. Islamophobia. Istighfar. Joseph in Islam. Kafir. Lecture. Listening. Lunch. Modesty. Morality. Mos Def. Mosque. Muhammad. Muslim Girl. Muslim. Parking lot. Peer group. Personal autonomy. Pew Research Center. Physical intimacy. Piety. Popular culture. Popular music. Popularity. Prayer. Premarital sex. Profanity. Quran. Rapping. Recitation. Religion. Religiosity. Religious community. Religious conversion. Religious identity. Romance (love). Safe sex. Salafi movement. Sexual intercourse. Sharia. Shirt. Snoop Dogg. Social dilemma. Social environment. Social group. Social status. Sociology. Subjectivity. Suggestion. Sunday school. T-shirt. Talib Kweli. The Other Hand. The Second Floor. Women in Islam. Writing process. Year. Youth culture. Youth program. Youth.

E184.M88

305.697073