Medina by the Bay

Maryam Kashani is a filmmaker and Assistant Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

A Note on Transcription, Translation, and Blessings xi Acknowledgments xiii Cast of Characters xix Introduction 1 1. Medina by the Bay 37 2. Roots, Routes, and Rhythms of Devotional Time 85 3. Codewords and Counterinsurgent Continuities 121 4. Out of Bounds 153 5. Epistemologies of the Oppressor and the Oppressed 182 In the Way (Toward a Conclusion/Opening) 219 Notes 227 References 263 Index 295

"Medina by the Bay is a brilliant, moving, gorgeously crafted tour de force! Seamlessly weaving together ethnography, analysis, theory, history, political critique, and methodological interventions, Maryam Kashani shows readers that Islam is of and from the Bay Area. While attending to gender, class, and generational difference, she elucidates the context of racial capitalism, the War on Terror, and settler-colonial white supremacy within which Muslims in the Bay Area live, not as a laundry list of things to oppose or things that restrict, but as the conditions within which her interlocutors live, work, understand, create, teach, and learn. The result is a cutting-edge work that will be a must-read for years to come." - Lara Deeb, Professor of Anthropology and MENA studies, Scripps College "Maryam Kashani's portrait of the rise of a Muslim American community begins intimately with scenes of prayer, a classroom seminar, and a poetry reading, and gathers to the level of the universal. Sounding manifold voices of what she lovingly calls 'the unruly aggregate,' she poses sharp questions about spirituality, knowledge, resistance, and survival. Medina by the Bay is ambitious, expansive, and wholly original, and will be celebrated for years to come." - Jeff Chang, author of (We Gon' Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation)