Lived Islam: Embodied Identities and Everyday Practices among American Muslim Youth

Abstract

This article explores lived Islam in the context of two young American Muslim women’s everyday lives. Although much of the scholarship on Muslim geographies is grounded in people’s everyday lives, the focus has been to situate and examine the specific meanings and expressions of “Muslim” identities. Whereas scholars intentionally have been writing against anti-Muslim racism and with the commendable aim of gaining extensive knowledge, our focus on “Muslim” has at times been at the expense of other salient identities, activities, and interests of interlocutors. Drawing on the broader scholarship on lived religion, this article offers geographers an approach to lived Islam influenced by feminist geographical and phenomenological frameworks. Through ethnographic methods, lived Islam offers a detailed picture of subjective everyday life, with a focus on embodied and emotionally charged memories, intersecting identities, and practices. Such a feminist approach to the lived enactment of religious faith rejects inherent identity categories as well as binaries such as religious–secular. Lived Islam contributes importantly to Muslim geographies and feminist geographies of religion by elaborating on the complexities of Muslim lives and identities, how being Muslim is integral to different kinds of nonreligious identities and practices in different secular and nonreligious spaces within specific social and political contexts.

本文以两位年轻美国穆斯林妇女的日常生活为背景, 探讨了生活中的伊斯兰教。穆斯林地理研究大多基于日常生活, 但侧重于确定和研究“穆斯林”身份的特定含义和表达。学者们抵制反穆斯林种族主义, 试图获得各种知识。但是, 对“穆斯林”的关注, 有时会牺牲对话者的其它重要身份、行为和利益。本文借鉴生活中的宗教研究, 以女权主义地理学和现象学为框架, 提出了生活中的伊斯兰教方法。通过民族志方法, 生活中的伊斯兰教详述了主观日常生活, 关注具身化和情感化记忆、交叉身份和行为。这种宗教信仰的女权主义研究方法, 摒弃了固有身份类型和二元对立（例如, 宗教与世俗）。生活中的伊斯兰教, 阐述了穆斯林生活和身份的复杂性, 还阐述了在特定的社会和政治背景下、在不同的世俗和非宗教空间中, 穆斯林如何与各种非宗教身份和行为融为一体。本文为穆斯林地理和女权主义宗教地理做出了重要贡献。

Este artículo explora el Islam vivido en el contexto de las vidas cotidianas de dos jóvenes musulmanas americanas. Aunque una gran parte de la erudición sobre las geografías musulmanas se fundamenta en las vidas cotidianas de la gente, el centro de interés del artículo está en situar y examinar los significados y expresiones específicos de las identidades “musulmanas”. Si bien los estudiosos han estado escribiendo intencionalmente contra el racismo anti-musulmán, con la encomiable intención de obtener un amplio conocimiento al respecto, nuestro interés, centrado en lo “musulmán”, ha ido a veces en detrimento de otras identidades, actividades e intereses destacados de los interlocutores. Basándose en la erudición de la religión vivida, de mayor amplitud, este artículo ofrece a los geógrafos un enfoque aplicado al Islam vivido, influido por marcos geográficos y fenomenológicos feministas. Por medio de métodos etnográficos, el Islam vivido ofrece un cuadro detallado de la vida cotidiana subjetiva, centrándose en recuerdos encarnados y emocionalmente cargados, en las identidades cruzadas y en las prácticas. Tal enfoque feminista hacia la vivencia de la fe religiosa rechaza las categorías identitarias inherentes, lo mismo que binarios tales como lo religioso-secular. El Islam vivido contribuye de manera significativa a las geografías musulmanas y feministas de la religión, profundizando en lo relativo a las complejidades de las vidas e identidades musulmanas, y sobre cómo el ser musulmán hace parte de los diferentes tipos de identidades y prácticas, en diferentes espacios seculares y no religiosos, dentro de contextos sociales y políticos específicos.

Key Words:

• embodied identities
• everyday religion
• lived Islam
• Muslim geographies
• Muslim youth

关键词:

• 具身身份
• 日常宗教
• 生活中的伊斯兰教
• 穆斯林地理
• 穆斯林青年。

Palabras clave:

• geografías musulmanas
• identidades encarnadas
• Islam vivido
• juventud musulmana
• religión cotidiana

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to the youth who participated in this study and for their time and interest in sharing their stories and life experiences with me. Further, my heartfelt thanks go to dear colleagues and friends Caroline Seymour-Jorn and Kristin Sziarto. Their feedback and support were critical while writing this piece during an ongoing pandemic. I also appreciate the helpful comments of three anonymous reviewers.

Notes

1 The participants in this study have been given, or chosen, pseudonyms.

2 No interviewee was a current student or enrolled in my classes at the time of the interview.

3 See https://www.advocatesforyouth.org/about/our-legacy/ (accessed 4 May 2021).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Mansson McGinty

ANNA MANSSON McGINTY is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include Muslim geographies, gender, activism, and Islam, Islamic feminisms, and feminist and ethnographic methods and methodologies.