Review of Muslim Britain: Communities Under Pressure, edited by Tahir Abbas

Tahir Abbas is to be commended for his edited collection of essays about Muslim life
in Britain post 9/11. With the recent terrorist attacks in London on July 7, 2005, the
book is, sadly, even more relevant today than when it was published. It is required
reading for those of us interested in Islam and Muslim communities in modern Britain. This volume consists of 15 chapters, as well as a Foreword by Tariq Modood and an Afterword by John Rex. It is divided into four sections: “From Islam to British Muslims…,” “Islamophobia, Identity Politics and Multiculturalism,” “Media Representation, Gender and Radical Islam,” and “Temporal and Spatial Ethnic and Religious Identities.” The chapters are uniformly excellent, each of them contributing to our understanding. The volume is multi-disciplinary, bringing in contributors from various fields, with a good mix of established scholars as well as newer scholarly voices.