About
With support from the British Council’s “Bridging Voices” program, King’s College London and George Mason University are jointly running a project to explore these themes and questions through research, writing, digital and social media, as well as other forms of cultural production (learn more)
“True Islam taught me that it takes all of the religious, political, economic, psychological, and racial ingredients, or characteristics, to make the Human Family and the Human Society complete.”
-Malcolm X
With deep social and political polarization in both the United States and Europe—and against a backdrop of rising anti-Muslim sentiment, heightened politics around race, and the #metoo movement—how are Muslim communities in the United Kingdom and the United States making sense of and responding to renewed debates on gender, race, and securitization? With much that unites them, but also significant differences in their respective experiences, what are the key points of convergence and divergence in how Muslims in the US and the UK are thinking about the present moment? To what extent is it relevant to think of an emerging space of intellectual, cultural, and political exchange—a “Muslim Atlantic”—that encompasses these dialogues and debates?
Work
‘Living the Muslim Atlantic: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Marginality’ is the second and final report from this project. It builds from the contextual picture presented in our first report and from a series of workshops held on issues of gender, race, and securitization in the Muslim Atlantic. This final report places the Muslim Atlantic within a wide historical frame, ranging from postcolonial legacies and the Black radical tradition to more recent developments with #MeToo and the resurgence of Black Lives Matter. Drawing on contemporary lived experiences of Muslims in the UK and the US as the lens through which these intersections are considered, the report ends with a set of practical suggestions that can be taken forward by researchers, advocacy networks, and philanthropic organizations.
Featured:
Aina Khan in Al Jazeera: Britain’s Black Muslims
Britain's black Muslims: Ignored, discriminated and resisting. Mostly of African or Caribbean background, black Muslims are raising awareness of the centrality of blackness to Islam.
Khizra Foundation: Everyday Muslim–Documenting Muslim heritage in the UK
Everyday Muslim is a long-term project to create a central archive of Muslim lives, arts, education and cultures from across the UK.
Aysha Khan in Religion News: New play ‘American Griot’ explores blues music’s Muslim and African roots
“Though our bodies were broken, we found that our spirits lived on in music,” Mamadou declared in the play. “From the griot tradition, to the blues, to jazz, to something called rock ‘n’ roll eventually.”
We have collected some articles, songs, and other resources that you may be interested in, from Aina Khan’s article about Black Muslims in the UK to the influence of African Islam on blues music explored in recent US theatre production “American Griot”