Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/104218
Title: [Book Review] Being young and Muslim : new cultural politics in the global South and North by Linda Herrera & Asef Bayat
Authors: Mayo, Peter
Keywords: Books -- Reviews
Culture
Political science
Muslims
Issue Date: 2012
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.
Citation: Mayo, P. (2012). [Book Review] Being young and Muslim : new cultural politics in the global South and North by Linda Herrera & Asef Bayat. Policy Futures in Education, 10(1), 128-131.
Abstract: My recent three trips to Istanbul have allowed a number of ideas expressed in this huge but very readable volume to resonate with some of the amazing experiences I witnessed there. On my last visit to Taksim and the surrounding area, en route to the Galata Tower, the city’s vibrant din was enhanced by that emanating from one of those tourist trains we are now accustomed to finding in many places. The only difference was that this train featured not tourists but an accomplished blues band belting out some classics in a manner that would have made greats such as Robert Johnson and B.B. King proud. This was not an imported band. It was fully composed of young Turks (no pun intended). And of course, I have no indication of the religious beliefs, if any, of the band members. The scene however captured much of the spirit that prevails in this city where west meets east and south meets north; where Kemalists co-exist with extreme Marxist-oriented leftwingers; where Ottoman, European and North American cultures blend in a variety of ways; where a strong Muslim culture makes its presence felt alongside other religious cultures in the context of a secular state. This, for me, is Istanbul. And Pierre Hecker’s account, in this volume, of heavy metal in Turkey gestures in this direction. Would this be representative of many other contexts inhabited by Muslim youth? This would be difficult to tell given the heterogeneity of Muslim contexts. This book does justice to the heterogeneity of these contexts ranging from western contexts such as Germany, the Netherlands and France to Arab contexts such as Egypt and Morocco, to the Sub-Saharan African context of the Gambia, to the Middle East, to Indonesia, to Iran. What this book certainly manages to do successfully, in my view, is capture a sense of the complexity of identity formation among Muslim youth as they navigate the contours between different cultures and lifeworlds, including those perceived as modern or postmodern, thus highlighting the dangers of stereotyping and cultural essentializing. Muslim youths move, interact, appropriate, reject, and transform. It is this sense which comes across throughout the book. That blues band in Istanbul could well have been composed of Muslims. That would not have surprised me in the least, given the insights I subsequently gleaned from this volume.
URI: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/104218
Appears in Collections:Scholarly Works - FacEduAOCAE



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