Somali, Muslim, British Striving in Securitized Britain [Hardcover]

Somalis are one of the most chastised Muslim communities in Europe. Depicted in the news as victims of female genital mutilation, perpetrators of gang violence, or more recently, as radical Islamists, Somalis have been cast as a threat to social cohesion, national identity, and security in Britain and beyond.

Somali, Muslim, Britishshifts attention away from these public representations to provide a detailed ethnographic study of Somali Muslim women's engagements with religion, political discourses, and public culture in the United Kingdom.
The book chronicles the aspirations of different generations of Somali women as they respond to publicly charged questions of what it means to be Muslim, Somali, and British. By challenging and reconfiguring the dominant political frameworks in which they are immersed, these women imagine new ways of being in securitized Britain. Giulia Liberatore provides a nuanced account of Islamic piety, arguing that it needs to be understood as one among many forms of striving that individuals pursue throughout their lives.

Bringing new perspectives to debates about Islam and multiculturalism in Europe, this book makes an important contribution to the anthropology of religion, subjectivity, and gender.

List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Note on Language
1. Introduction
2. An Ethnography with Somali Women in London
3. Memories of Modern Mogadishu
4. Tuition Centres and Somali Mosques: Raising Good Daughters in London
5. UpdatingSoomaalinimo: Young Somalis and the Problematization of Culture
6. Mosque Hopping: Seeking Islamic Knowledge in London
7. Multiculturalism, British Values, and the Muslim Subject
8. Imagining an Ideal Husband
9. Beyond Prevent
References
Index