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Religion

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

A compelling portrait of a group of boys as they navigate the complexities of being both American teenagers and good Muslims

Paperback

Price:
$24.95/拢20.00
ISBN:
Published:
Aug 6, 2019
Pages:
216
Size:
6.14 x 9.21 in.

This 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鈥橞rien offers a compelling portrait of typical Muslim American teenage boys concerned with typical teenage issues鈥攇irlfriends, school, parents, being cool鈥攜et who are also expected to be good, practicing Muslims who don鈥檛 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鈥橞rien illuminates how they work together to manage their 鈥渃ulturally contested lives鈥� through subtle and innovative strategies鈥攕uch as listening to profane hip-hop music in acceptably 鈥淚slamic鈥� 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 鈥渓ow-key Islam鈥� 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.

Awards and Recognition

  • Winner of the Distinguished Book Award, Sociology of Religion Section of the American Sociological Association