Beyond Minority Identity Politics: Rethinking Progressive Islam through Food

In this dissertation, I analyze the challenges of speaking about religion, ethics, and politics as a Muslim in America beyond the language of minority identity. I investigated the different ways Muslims negotiate the demands of Islamic dietary laws in their everyday lives by collecting primary data gathered through interviews with Muslims from different localities. The answers given by the participants in this study speak to more than the particular issue of how Muslims understand and carry out the demands of Islamic dietary laws given the reality of living in a country where Muslims are a minority group. They reflect a discourse on Islamic dietary laws that is framed primarily within the language of exclusive privatized religious identity and individual consumerism. In this dissertation, I seek to propose a different discourse on Islamic dietary laws, one that is characterized by greater inclusivity and challenges the language of exclusive privatized religious identity and individual consumerism.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Planning, Governance, and Globalization

Department dc:contributor.department

Planning, Governance, and Globalization

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Dahlan-Taylor, Magfirah

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Luke, Timothy W.
• Lavin, Chad D.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Debrix, Francios
• Scott, Rachel M.

• Muslim
• Modernity
• Food Ethics
• Dietary Law
• Religious Identity

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-05072012-225509

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/37730