Origins and Directions

The introduction to Making Muslimness , “Origins and Directions,” lays out the twin arguments of this book: that Muslimness is (1) a socially constructed, context-specific, and relational phenomenon with sociocultural and racial – rather than exclusively religious – roots and routes; and (2) based on how British Muslims undertake complex social, staged, scripted, and staged negotiations and performances in their everyday lives, vis-à-vis national and global politics. This chapter also describes the purpose of this book; the author’s methodological orientations; and relevant geographic, historical, and political contexts. It concludes by outlining the structure of the text and its subsequent chapters.