Islam, Youth, and Modernity in the Gambia The Tablighi Jama'at [Paperback]

This monograph explores the expansion of the Tablighi Jama'at, a transnational Islamic missionary movement that originated in India in the mid-nineteenth century.This monograph explores the expansion of the Tablighi Jama'at, a transnational Islamic missionary movement that originated in India in the mid-nineteenth century, and its impact in the Gambia (West Africa) in the past decade. The Jama'at offers Gambian youth, and women in particular, new opportunities to express their religious identity in a way that is in line with a modern lifestyle. The book investigates how Gambian youth have incorporated the South Asian Tablighi ideology into their daily lives and adapted it to their local context.This monograph explores the expansion of the Tablighi Jama'at, a transnational Islamic missionary movement that originated in India in the mid-nineteenth century, and its impact in the Gambia (West Africa) in the past decade. The Jama'at offers Gambian youth, and women in particular, new opportunities to express their religious identity in a way that is in line with a modern lifestyle. The book investigates how Gambian youth have incorporated the South Asian Tablighi ideology into their daily lives and adapted it to their local context.This monograph deals with the sweeping emergence of the Tablighi Jama'at  a transnational Islamic missionary movement that has its origins in the reformist tradition that emerged in India in the mid-nineteenth century  in the Gambia in the past decade. It explores how a movement that originated in South Asia could appeal to the local Muslim population  youth and women in particular  in a West African setting. By recording the biographical narratives of five Gambian Tablighis, the book provides an understanding of the ambiguities and contradictions young people are confronted with in their (re)negotiation of Muslim identity. Together these narratives form a picture of how Gambian youth go about their lives within the framework of neo-liberall*