In Remaking Islam in African Portugal, Michelle C. Johnson explores the religious lives of these migrants in the context of diaspora. Since Islam arrived in West Africa centuries ago, Muslims in this region have long conflated ethnicity and Islam. But as they increasingly encounter Muslims not from Africa, as well as other ways of being Muslim, they must question and revise their understanding of “proper” Muslim belief and practice. Johnson maintains that this cultural intersection is highly gendered, contrasting Guinean Muslim men’s pilgrimages to Mecca with women’s “culture clubs”, among other examples. Remaking Islam in African Portugal highlights what being Muslim means in urban Europe and how Guinean migrants’ relationships to their ritual practices must change as they remake themselves and their religion.
Cost: Free
For more information contact:
Ali Alsmadi
(812) 855-6660
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