Tag Archives: modernity

Long Read: Colonialism, Modernity, Racialization, and African American Muslims

When I first began my research for this blog, I wanted to investigate how it is that black Muslim identity has and continues to inform Islam in America today.  Drawing from David Chidster, D.V. Kumar, and Tomoko Masuzawa’s works on … Continue reading

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Revolutionary People, Revolutionary Bodies: Birth Control and Abortion in Iran

In the United States, conversations surrounding birth control and abortion access are controversial, heavily politicized and deeply infused with debates about religion. In Iran, a state known as a rival to the US, perceived as a threat to both American … Continue reading

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Muslims in the Modern World

Stevya Mukuzo  Muslims in the Modern World  The issue of modernity has affected Muslim population, particularly those living in the modern world . Some Muslims living in America are faced with the challenges of assimilation and “othering” as a result … Continue reading

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Iranian Cinema: An Apologetic Platform

In the Iranian film A Separation, the winner of the 84th Annual Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film, director Asghar Farhadi takes us through the story of two families with different socio-economic statuses and their conflicting relationships. A … Continue reading

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The Fight Between the Veil and Secularity

Many Westerners view modest clothing as the ultimate sign of Muslim women’s oppression. They assume that the concept of the veil, whether a headscarf or a full-body covering, is based on the outdated idea that women’s bodies are overly sexual … Continue reading

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Islam and Modern Turkey

In his discussion of the impacts of modernity on religion, John Wilson aptly states that the changes observed in religions’ response to modernity “by no means run in one direction only”[1]. This is certainly the case for manifestations of Islam … Continue reading

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The Challenge of Representing Muslims in American Film and Television

by Kira Capaldi The problem of representation in American media is a loaded one in all manner of discourse, from the social and political to the intellectual and artistic. In such an environment, those who work in media are necessarily … Continue reading

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Boko Haram’s British Roots

by Ava Williams In the early 2000s, an anti-western, Muslim organization originated in Nigeria. Formally known as Boko Haram, the terrorist organization establishes themselves against the west through their ideals and the name’s English meaning, ‘western education is a sin.’ Boko Haram … Continue reading

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Apologetic Masculinities

There is no doubt that modernity has played an integral role in the rapid development of cultural norms in Muslim-majority societies following the eighteenth-century (Wilson 2005, 6111). In this specific milieu, modernity can be defined as a response to the … Continue reading

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Tackling Muslim Fashion Within a Secular State

The typical American student, let’s call him Ryan, who might pay attention in his Social Studies class, would probably define Secularism as, ‘the separation of church and state.’ However, Secularism is not simply the act of separating two spheres, which … Continue reading

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