| Summary/Abstract |
This article responds to recent research calling for more nuanced discussions of Muslim political and social activist subjectivities (Ahmed 2011; Maira 2016; Mansouri et al. 2016; Nagel and Staeheli 2011). We analyze community and social justice activism among Muslims in Milwaukee through the lens of the American prophetic tradition. We argue that Muslim leaders in Milwaukee represent their activism as part of this tradition, and that they draw upon a complex of religious, social and political discourses and social practices. These include American civil rights activism, Islamically inspired social action, and a desire to engage in placemaking that responds to the specific conditions of Milwaukee, a city that features intense racial segregation, dense pockets of poverty, and increased immigration from the Arabo-Islamic world. Thus, we see a pluralization of Muslim social activist subjectivity: social justice activism which is religiously based, related to the civil rights tradition, and which is also highly attuned to the specific ways in which Muslims may practice a politics of belonging in this Midwestern city.
|