Adis Duderija - Islam and Muslims in the West: Major Issues and Debates

Islam is recognized as the worlds fastest growing religion and is predicted to become the worlds largest well before the end of this century. Key to the global growth of Islam has been its adaptation to local contexts; scholarship, however, has yet to catch up with these developments, especially outside the Middle East. The Palgrave New Directions in Islam series will promote creative ways of conceptualizing the practice of Islam in new, challenging contexts and will promote innovative and provocative interdisciplinary studies examining new intellectual, political, legal, economic, and demographic trajectories within Islam very often based on these new local contexts. Islam is growing rapidly, but many Muslims now live in secular societies where Islam is a minority religion and where there is considerable social conflict between Muslim communities and the wider society. Therefore it is vital to engage with the multitude of ways by which Muslims are adapting as social and cultural minorities. How are they developing their faith in line with local and national customs? How are converts and subsequent generations adapting in these challenging contexts? While preparing to grapple with these problems from the perspective of different disciplines, this series at the theoretical level moves beyond dichotomies about radicalism, citizenship, and loyalty which limit the realm of contemporary inquiry. For this reason the series will move beyond the proliferation of descriptive and repetitive studies of Islamophobia and Orientalism which have become both negative and predictable. Rather, contrary to the perception of Muslims as victims of secular modernity, we are interested in success stories of Muslims adapting in and contributing as citizens to society at local and national levels, such as the case of Muslim middle classes in Canada, the United States, South Africa, and Argentina. The series indeed will move beyond the geographic boundaries of the Middle East to examine Islam from a global perspective in vastly different contexts from Brazil to Vietnam and Austria to Papua New Guinea.

More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14746

Cover image Ger Bosma / Alamy Stock Photo

Cover design: Fatima Jamadar

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG

The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Given the non-specialist nature of the book and its intended readership, the Arabic and other foreign language terminology has only been placed in italics but not transliterated. The frequently used terms such as Quran and hadith have not been placed in italics.