Mario Peucker - Muslim Volunteering in the West: Between Islamic Ethos and Citizenship

The New Directions in Islam series will promote creative ways of conceptualizing the practice of Islam in new, challenging contexts and present innovative and provocative interdisciplinary studies examining intellectual, political, legal, economic, and demographic trajectories within Islam.

Although recognised as the worlds fastest growing religion, 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 and evolving 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? This series moves beyond dichotomies about radicalism, citizenship, and loyalty evident in 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 to society at local, national and even transnational levels, such as the case of Muslim middle classes in Canada, the United States, South Africa, and Argentina.

This series will go 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 illustration: Katie Edwards / Alamy Stock Photo

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The idea of editing a book on Muslim volunteering was born in October 2017 with a brief query on the Sociology of Islam mailing list, an academic platform administered by Tugrul Keskin. This is where we, the two editors of this book, connected over our shared research interest in Muslim volunteering, and it did not take long until we discussed possible ways of publishing together. We soon settled on jointly editing a book and were blessed with the passion and commitment of academic experts from around the world who offered to contribute to the book. We all embarked on a journey of academic exchange and profound, cross-disciplinary learningabout volunteering, Islamic piety and ethics, citizenship, and so much more.

As the editors, we would like to express our deep gratitude to all the authors in this book. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with you. Obviously, the book would not have been possible without your wonderful work. We also want to thank Tugrul Keskin, who, unknowingly, helped initiate the idea for this book, and the team at Palgrave Macmillan for their continuous professional support.

Lastly, we are most indebted to all those who made our research possible more than anyonethose people who have taken the time to sit down with us over countless glasses of tea, share their stories and views, and so kindly let us into their communities and lives without expecting anything in return. We believe we can speak on behalf of all authors in this book when we say we are deeply grateful for the trust they have put in us, their dedication and kindness.

This book identifies the ways in which religious Muslimness is akin to participatory citizenship in the secular sense. The collection is a significant contribution to a discussion in relation to the norms and values that Muslims derive from readings within Islam.

Tahir Abbas, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University, The Netherlands