Shiʻa Minorities in the Contemporary World Migration, Transnationalism and Multilocality

This book offers a set of new comparative perspectives on the experiences of Shi’a Muslim minorities outside the so-called ‘Muslim heartland’

Global migration flows in the 20th century have seen the emergence of Muslim diaspora and minority communities in Europe, North America and other parts of the world. This book offers a set of new comparative perspectives on the experiences of Shi’a Muslim minorities outside the so-called ‘Muslim heartland’ (Middle East, North Africa, Central and South Asia). It looks at Shi’a minority communities in Europe, North and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia and discusses the particular challenges these communities face as ‘a minority within a minority’.

Key features

• Provides comparative insights into Shi’a Muslim communities across the globe, set in Muslim minority contexts
• Makes an important contribution to understanding the global dynamics of contemporary Shi’a Islam
• Illustrates how transnational Shi’a networks operate in Muslim minority contexts
• Discusses the impact of events in the Middle East on Shi’a Muslim minorities across the world
• Case studies include an in-depth ethnographic study of the Shi’a community in Buenos Aires; insights into the unique challenges of Shi’a Muslims in Sri Lanka; the connections of Shi’a Muslims in Cambodia to Iran; and the limits of sectarian differences among Shi’a Muslims in Germany

About the Authors

Oliver Scharbrodt is Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Chester. He is the author of Islam and the Baha’i Faith: A Comparative Study of Muhammad ‘Abduh and ‘Abdul-Baha ‘Abbas (London and New York: Routledge, 2008) and editor of the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe (Leiden: Brill).

Yafa Shanneik is Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Birmingham. She researches the dynamics and trajectories of gender in Islam within the context of contemporary diasporic and transnational Muslim women’s spaces. Currently, she is working on a project which explores women’s narratives of transnational marriage practices performed by Iraqi and Syrian women who have settled in Europe or other countries in the Middle East since the 1980s. The project focuses on the historical developments and contemporary understandings and approaches of marriage practices among displaced Iraqi and Syrian Muslim women and foregrounds questions of identity, home and belonging of women constituted through local, national and transnational scales of migration experiences.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. ‘My Homeland is Husayn’: Transnationalism and Multilocality in Shi’a Contexts
   Oliver Scharbrodt and Yafa Shanneik

Part I: Localising Global Shi’a Minority Spaces

2. Performing Shi’ism between Java and Qom: Education and Rituals
   Chiara Formichi
3. Mi corazón late Husayn: Identity, Politics and Religion in a Shi’a Community in Buenos Aires
   Mari-Sol García Somoza and Mayra Soledad Valcarcel
4. Bektashism as a Model and Metaphor for ‘Balkan Islam’
   Piro Rexhepi
5. Living Najaf in London: Diaspora, Identity, and the Sectarianisation of the Iraqi-Shi’a Subject
   Emanuelle Degli Esposti

Part II: Transnational Shi’a Trajectories

6. Global Networks, Local Concerns: Investigating the Impact of Emerging Technologies on Shi’a Religious Leaders and Constituencies
   Robert J. Riggs
7. ‘Still We Long for Zaynab’: South Asian Shi’ites and Transnational Homelands under Attack
   Noor Zehra Zaidi
8. From a Marginalised Religious Community in Iran to a Government-sanctioned Public Interest Foundation in Paris – Remarks on the ‘Ostad Elahi Foundation’
   Roswitha Badry

Part III: ‘Alid Piety and the Fluidity of Sectarian Boundaries

9. Ideas in Motion: The Transmission of Shi’a Knowledge in Sri Lanka
   Harun Rasiah
10. Limits of Sectarianism: Shi’ism and ahl al-bayt Islam among Turkish Migrant Communities in Germany
    Benjamin Weineck
11. ‘For ‘Ali is Our Ancestor’: Cham Sayyids’ Shi’a Trajectories from Cambodia to Iran
    Emiko Stock

Epilogue

12. Shi’a Cosmopolitanisms and Conversions
    Mara A. Leichtman

Bibliographic Information

Title:  Shi’a Minorities in the Contemporary World Migration, Transnationalism and Multilocality

Editor(s): Oliver Scharbrodt & Yafa Shanneik

Publisher: ‎ Edinburgh University Press

Length: 344 pages

ISBN: ‎ ‎ 978-1474430371

Pub. Date: July 8, 2020

Shi‘a Minorities in the Contemporary