exploring muslim identities in europe & north america

"ISLAM AND NATIONALISM". A new book series from Palgrave Macmillan. Series editors Umut Özkırımlı and Spyros A. Sofos - Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University. International Advisory Board includes (in alphabetical order) Seyla Benhabib, Sondra Hale, Deniz Kandiyoti, Saba Mahmood, Jorgen S. Nielsen, James Piscatori, Gayatri C. Spivak, Bryan S. Turner, Peter van der Veer, Nira Yuval-Davis and Sami Zubaida. One of the main objectives of this series is to explore the relationship between Islam, nationalism and citizenship in its diverse expressions. The series intends to provide a space for approaches that recognize the potential of Islam to permeate and inspire national forms of identification, and systems of government as well as its capacity to inspire oppositional politics, alternative modes of belonging and the formation of counterpublics in a variety of local, national or transnational contexts. By recognizing Islam as a transnational phenomenon and situati...

Although not directly related to the theme of this weblog I felt it was important to dedicate a note to the Words of Women from the Egyptian Revolution project which  sheds light on, and documents the participation of women in the Egyptian revolution. Although the Egyptian middle class is over-represented in the women interviewed, the sheer diversity of outlooks, lifestyles and pathways to taking part in the protests and the movement that surrounds them reveals the complexity of the social dynamics in Egypt today. And, more importantly, the voices of the women interviewed are voices of determination, courage, steadfastness and resilience, yet, at the same time, they are voices of ordinary people, simple, devoid of bravado and pretense. This is a worthy project that explores the encounter of the mundane and the trivial with the heroic, that injects the experiences of ordinary women in a male-dominated collective memory. And although  the enunciators are women...