This sociological study on the plural and often contested construction of Muslim
identities in Brazil contributes to a growing scholarship on Islam and the
politics of religious difference across the Atlantic. Focusing on two institutions
in São Paulo state – the Islamic Center of Campinas (Centro Islâmico de Campinas)
and the Islamic Charity Youth League of Brazil (Liga da Juventude Islâmica
Beneficente do Brasil), located in the Brás neighborhood of São Paulo
city – Cristina Maria de Castro’s book frames the negotiation of what it means
to be Muslim in Brazil and in the wider ummah not only with regard to the
historical longue durée and plural religious field, but also in terms of gender
and ethnic politics. By focusing on this “range and diversity of [an] Islamic
diaspora,”1 to use the words of Gayatri Spivak, this book will help “undo the
politically monolithized view of Islam that rules the globe today.”
American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences