Islam, Race, and Pluralism in the Pakistani Diaspora

This book explores the Pakistani diaspora in a transatlantic context, enquiring into the ways in which young first- and second-generation Pakistani Muslim and non-Muslim men resist hegemonic identity narratives and respond to their marginalised conditions. Drawing on rich documentary, ethnographic and interview material gathered in Boston and Dublin, Islam, Race, and Pluralism in the Pakistani Diaspora introduces the term ‘Pakphobia’, a dividing line that is set up to define the places that are safe and to distinguish ‘us’ and ‘them’ in a Pakistani diasporic context. With a multiple case study design, which accounts for the heterogeneity of Pakistani populations, the author explores the language of fear and how this fear has given rise to a ‘politics of fear’ whose aim is to distract and divide communities. A rich, cross-national study of one of the largest minority groups in the US and Western Europe, this book will appeal to sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, and geographers with interests in race and ethnicity, migration and diasporic communities.

Craig Considine is a Catholic American of Irish and Italian descent. As a sociologist he focuses on Islam, religious pluralism, Muslim Americans, Islamophobia, Christian–Muslim relations, the life of the Prophet Muhammad, race and ethnic relations, and the intersection of religion and nationalism. Craig is currently a faculty member in the Department of Sociology at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He holds a Ph.D. from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Craig was born and bred in Needham, Massachusetts, and has lived in Washington, DC, and London, England.