British Muslim Fictions


Book Description

Through interviews with leading writers (including Ahdaf Soueif and Hanif Kureishi), this book analyzes the writing and opinions of novelists of Muslim heritage based in the UK. Discussion centres on writers' work, literary techniques, and influences, and on their views of such issues as the hijab, the war on terror and the Rushdie Affair.




The Things I Would Tell You


Book Description

Selected as Emma Watson's Jan/Feb 2019 pick for her feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf A Guardian Best Book of the Year Shortlisted for London's Big Read From established literary heavyweights to emerging spoken word artists, the writers in this ground-breaking collection blow away the narrow image of the 'Muslim Woman'. Hear from users of Islamic Tinder, a disenchanted Maulana working as a TV chat show host and a plastic surgeon blackmailed by MI6. Follow the career of an actress with Middle-Eastern heritage whose dreams of playing a ghostbuster spiral into repeat castings as a jihadi bride. Among stories of honour killings and ill-fated love in besieged locations, we also find heart-warming connections and powerful challenges to the status quo. From Algiers to Brighton, these stories transcend time and place revealing just how varied the search for belonging can be. Alongside renowned authors such as Kamila Shamsie, Ahdaf Soueif and Leila Aboulela are emerging voices, published here for the first time.




Making Sense of Contemporary British Muslim Novels


Book Description

This book is the sequel to Britain Through Muslim Eyes and examines contemporary novelistic representations of and by Muslims in Britain. It builds on studies of the five senses and ‘sensuous geographies’ of postcolonial Britain, and charts the development since 1988 of a fascinating and important body of fiction by Muslim-identified authors. It is a selective literary history, exploring case-study novelistic representations of and by Muslims in Britain to allow in-depth critical analysis through the lens of sensory criticism. It argues that, for authors of Muslim heritage in Britain, writing the senses is often a double-edged act of protest. Some of the key authors excoriate a suppression or cover-up of non-heteronormativity and women’s rights that sometimes occurs in Muslim communities. Yet their protest is especially directed at secular culture’s ocularcentrism and at successive British governments’ efforts to surveil, control, and suppress Muslim bodies.




The Secret Diary of a British Muslim Aged 13 3/4


Book Description

The incredible Sunday Times bestseller 'Essential...A complex blend of overexcited Adrian Mole-like anecdotes mixed with shocking moments of racism and insights into Muslim religious practices' Sunday Times 'Authentic, funny and very relatable' - Sayeeda Warsi In 1997, Britain was leading the way to an exciting new world order. A funny, loveable and naïve 13-year-old Tez Ilyas from working class Blackburn wanted to be a doctor. By the end of 2001, the UK was at war with Afghanistan and Islamophobia had shot through the roof. 18-year-old Tez wasn't heading for a medical degree. In this rollercoaster of a coming-of-age memoir, comedian Tez Ilyas takes us back to the working class, insular British Asian Muslim community that shaped the man he grew up to be. Full of rumbling hormones, mischief-making friends, family tragedy, racism Tez didn't yet understand and a growing respect for his religion, his childhood is both a nostalgic celebration of everything that made growing up in the 90s so special, and a reflection on how hardship needn't define the person you become. At times shalwar-wetting hilarious and at others searingly sad, this is an eye-opening childhood memoir from a little-heard perspective that you'll be thinking about long after you've finished the last page.




Britain Through Muslim Eyes


Book Description

What did Britain look like to the Muslims who visited and lived in the country in increasing numbers from the late eighteenth century onwards? This book is a literary history of representations of Muslims in Britain from the late eighteenth century to the eve of Salman Rushdie's publication of The Satanic Verses (1988).




Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets


Book Description

Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets — Islamic book for kids "A beautiful picture book that simultaneously explores shapes, Islam, and the cultures of the Muslim people." — Kirkus Reviews Toddler book of shapes and Islamic traditions: From a crescent moon to a square garden to an octagonal fountain, this breathtaking picture book celebrates the shapes—and traditions—of the Muslim world. Toddler book by author Hena Khan: Sure to inspire questions and observations about world religions and cultures, Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets is equally at home in a classroom reading circle and on a parent's lap being read to a child. If you and your child like books such as Lailah’s Lunchbox, Numbers Colors Shapes, or The Name Jar, you will love Crescent Moons and Pointed Minarets.




Secret Affairs


Book Description

This updated edition of Secret Affairs covers the momentous events of the past year in the Middle East and at home in the UK. It reveals the unreported attempts by Britain to cultivate relations with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt after the fall of Mubarak, the military intervention on the side of Libyan rebel forces which include pro-al-Qaeda elements, and the ongoing reliance on the region's ultimate fundamentalist state, Saudi Arabia, to safeguard its interest in the Middle East. It illuminates path of Salman Abedi, the bomber who attacked Manchester in May 2017, and his terror network: how he fought in Libya in 2011 as part of a group of fighters which the UK allowed to leave the country to go and battle against Gadafi to topple him. In this ground-breaking book, Mark Curtis reveals the covert history of British collusion with radical Islamic and terrorist groups. Secret Affairs shows how governments since the 1940s have connived with militant forces to control oil resources and overthrow governments. The story of how Britain has helped nurture the rise of global terrorism has never been told.




Islamic Postcolonialism


Book Description

Islamic postcolonialism is a theoretical perspective that combines two components which have up until now existed in a state of tension. As a secular theory, postcolonialism has notably failed to account for Muslim priorities; it has, for instance, had severe problems critiquing the anti-Islam polemics of The Satanic Verses, as is evidenced by Edward Said's support for Rushdie, in spite of his criticism of the stereotypical representation of Islam and Muslims in the West. Islamic postcolonialism applies the anti-colonial resistant methodology of postcolonialism from a Muslim perspective, exploring the continuance of colonial discourse in part of the contemporary western writing about Islam and Muslims. This book explores how Islam is depicted and Muslim identities are constructed in four representative works of contemporary British fiction: Hanif Kureishi's The Black Album (1995), Monica Ali's Brick Lane (2003), Fadia Faqir's My Name is Salma (2007), and Leila Aboulela's Minaret (2005). Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (1988) is also discussed in terms of its crucial role in fostering what some Muslims might consider polemical and stereotypical positions in writing about Islam.




Muslims in Britain


Book Description

Following the events of 11th September 2001 in the USA, and more especially, the bombings on the London underground on 7th July 2005 and the incident at Glasgow Airport on 30th June 2007, an increasing amount of public attention has been focused upon Muslims in Britain. Against the backdrop of this debate, this book sets out a series of innovative insights into the everyday lives of Muslims living in contemporary Britain, in an attempt to move beyond prevalent stereotypes concerning what it means to be 'Muslim'. Combining original empirical research with theoretical interventions, this collection offers a range of reflections on how Muslims in Britain negotiate their everyday lives, manage experiences of racism and exclusion, and develop local networks and global connections. The authors explore a broad range of themes including gender relations; educational and economic issues; migration and mobility; religion and politics; racism and Islamophobia; and the construction and contestation of Muslim identities. Threaded through the treatment of these themes is a unifying concern with the ways in which geography matters to how Muslims negotiate their daily experiences as well as their racialised, gendered and religious identities. Above all, attention is focused upon the role of the home and local community, the influence of the economy and the nation, and the power of transnational connections and mobilities in the everyday lives of Muslims in Britain. Includes contributions from: Louise Archer, Yahya Birt, Sophie Bowlby, Claire Dwyer, Richard Gale, Peter Hopkins, Lily Kong, Sally Lloyd-Evans, Sean McLoughlin, Sharmina Mawani, Tariq Modood, Anjoom Mukadam, Caroline Nagel, Deborah Phillips, Bindi Shah, and Lynn Staeheli




Postcolonialism and Islam


Book Description

With a focus on the areas of theory, literature, culture, society and film, this collection of essays examines, questions and broadens the applicability of Postcolonialism and Islam from a multifaceted and cross-disciplinary perspective. Topics covered include the relationship between Postcolonialism and Orientalism, theoretical perspectives on Postcolonialism and Islam, the position of Islam within postcolonial literature, Muslim identity in British and European contexts, and the role of Islam in colonial and postcolonial cinema in Egypt and India. At a time at which Islam continues to be at the centre of increasingly heated and frenzied political and academic deliberations, Postcolonialism and Islam offers a framework around which the debate on Muslims in the modern world can be centred. Transgressing geographical, disciplinary and theoretical boundaries, this book is an invaluable resource for students of Islamic Studies, Cultural Studies, Sociolgy and Literature.