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Globalization, Americanization and British Muslim Identity
Saied Reza Ameli
Published by the Islamic College for Advanced Studies (ICAS),
133 High Road
London NW10 2SW
United Kingdom
308pp £14.95
‘An impressively successful attempt to consider the impact of globalization in shaping Muslim identity in the West, particularly in Britain. A book such as this could hardly be more timely.’
-- Prof. Roland Robertson, University of Pittsburgh, USA
‘This is not only a concise history of the development of Muslim identity, it is a
thought-provoking analysis of the possibilities for Muslim identity and activity in the future.’
-- Prof. Scot Lucas, University of Birmingham
‘A groundbreaking study synthesizing the debate regarding crucial aspects of Muslim engagement with the West…investigates the cultural interaction between young Muslims and British society, how their identities are being interrogated, challenged and transformed as they move into the twenty-first century.’
-- Dr. K. H Ansari, Royal Holloway University
This is the first empirical study to explore the impact of globalization upon the construction of Muslim identity in the West, in particular in Britain. Drawing on a number of theoretical models, this book examines the way in which globalization generates, paradoxically, two parallel processes: homogenization and heterogenization. The former process is chiefly characterised by increasing Westernization, while the latter is observable in the different forms that growing Islamic ‘resistance’ has taken in Muslim societies worldwide. By examining second-generation young adults born in the UK of migrant Muslim parents and the extent to which the Western ‘global cultural industry’ has influenced their identity the study suggests that through the process of heterogenization cultural forms have become diversified and fragmented, and identity construction diffused.
Saied Reza Ameli is a lecturer at the University of Tehran’s faculty of Social Sciences and member of faculty at the Islamic College for Advanced Studies, London.
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