Islam is a Foreign Country

Zareena Grewal’s book traces the hopes, debates, accomplishments, and disappointments of American Muslim students who travel to the Middle East in pursuit of Islamic knowledge. As Grewal discovers through her interviews with over 100 students and teachers, the impetus behind many of their journeys...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Maha Nassar
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/6dbf624e78d14cc7ac2a9d41c617908f
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
id oai:doaj.org-article:6dbf624e78d14cc7ac2a9d41c617908f
record_format dspace
spelling oai:doaj.org-article:6dbf624e78d14cc7ac2a9d41c617908f2021-12-02T17:26:12ZIslam is a Foreign Country10.35632/ajis.v32i1.9592690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/6dbf624e78d14cc7ac2a9d41c617908f2015-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/959https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 Zareena Grewal’s book traces the hopes, debates, accomplishments, and disappointments of American Muslim students who travel to the Middle East in pursuit of Islamic knowledge. As Grewal discovers through her interviews with over 100 students and teachers, the impetus behind many of their journeys is a desire to find a solution to the “crisis” of Islamic authority in the United States. But once they spend some time immersed in a predominantly Muslim society, many discover that this crisis extends to the Muslim world as well. More recently, some American Muslim scholars have shifted their attention away from the Middle East and toward an “indigenization” of American Islam, which, the author points out, also faces many challenges. In chapter 1 Grewal explains that her project is focused on student-travelers who view the Islamic East as an “Archive of Tradition” (p. 36) that they hope will provide a more authentic and authoritative form of Islamic knowledge than what they could learn in the United States. Her fieldwork took her to Amman, Damascus, and Cairo during the early 2000s, where she interviewed students of such figures as Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller, Qubaysiya Ansa Tamara Gray, and Shaykh Ali Goma‘a, among others. The students she met came from diverse ethnic, geographic, and socio-economic backgrounds. Grewal does a good job of highlighting how these factors shaped their journeys ... Maha NassarInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 32, Iss 1 (2015)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
Maha Nassar
Islam is a Foreign Country
description Zareena Grewal’s book traces the hopes, debates, accomplishments, and disappointments of American Muslim students who travel to the Middle East in pursuit of Islamic knowledge. As Grewal discovers through her interviews with over 100 students and teachers, the impetus behind many of their journeys is a desire to find a solution to the “crisis” of Islamic authority in the United States. But once they spend some time immersed in a predominantly Muslim society, many discover that this crisis extends to the Muslim world as well. More recently, some American Muslim scholars have shifted their attention away from the Middle East and toward an “indigenization” of American Islam, which, the author points out, also faces many challenges. In chapter 1 Grewal explains that her project is focused on student-travelers who view the Islamic East as an “Archive of Tradition” (p. 36) that they hope will provide a more authentic and authoritative form of Islamic knowledge than what they could learn in the United States. Her fieldwork took her to Amman, Damascus, and Cairo during the early 2000s, where she interviewed students of such figures as Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller, Qubaysiya Ansa Tamara Gray, and Shaykh Ali Goma‘a, among others. The students she met came from diverse ethnic, geographic, and socio-economic backgrounds. Grewal does a good job of highlighting how these factors shaped their journeys ...
format article
author Maha Nassar
author_facet Maha Nassar
author_sort Maha Nassar
title Islam is a Foreign Country
title_short Islam is a Foreign Country
title_full Islam is a Foreign Country
title_fullStr Islam is a Foreign Country
title_full_unstemmed Islam is a Foreign Country
title_sort islam is a foreign country
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 2015
url https://doaj.org/article/6dbf624e78d14cc7ac2a9d41c617908f
work_keys_str_mv AT mahanassar islamisaforeigncountry
_version_ 1718380855996448768