Review of “Black Mecca: The African Muslims of Harlem” by Zain Abdullah

Imogen Spray

doi:10.31947/etnosia.v5i1.8555

Authors

Imogen Spray University of Auckland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31947/etnosia.v5i1.8555

Keywords:

The African, Black Mecca, Ethnography, Muslim

Abstract

This article aims to review the book with the title of Black Mecca: The African Muslims of Harlem by Zain Abdullah. Abdullah’s (2010) Mec Black Mecca ’adds to the growing body of literature on Islam influenced by the post-modernists' challenges to neo-Orientalist Western representations of Islam (Al Azmeh 1993: 140). They are called for a historicized and contextualized view of Islam and Muslims, steering away from essentializing identity politics. Abdullah's (2010) thick ethnography, or as he describes it, "narrative style," presents a variety of anecdotes and experiences along gendered, class, and generational lines, with a common Muslim orientation towards environment and experiences.

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References

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