The Making of a Salafi Muslim Woman

Eileen Barker, Nova Religio This is an ethnography of the very best kind. Inge is both systematically rigorous and sensitively empathic. We learn to see these women as women, facing the challenges of life in a contemporary western society that is not infrequently hostile-especially to women who are assumed to be either aggressively extremist or browbeaten victims of Islamophobia. These women are neither. Obviously enough, this is a book that should be read by anyone concerned about new religions and/or contemporary Islam. It could also be read with benefit by feminists and by those with an interest in qualitative methodology. But for anyone, it is a damn good read.

Damian Thompson & Christina Odone, The Spectator If you want to understand British Islam, you need to read it.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, the i newspaper This is an under-researched subject and so any credible information is very welcome.

Azadeh Moaveni, London Review of Books [A] rich portrait ... Inge found that nearly all of the Salafi women she followed in her research decided to wear the face veil against the wishes - sometimes despite the threats - of family members, who saw it as too extreme, too Arab, too rebellious. Officials often argue that Muslim women are too submissive to challenge extremist views even within their own families. But women who wear a garment that annoys their families, that provokes regular verbal abuse and leads to their being pelted with food in public are something other than submissive.

Madawi Al-Rasheed, author of Muted Modernists: The Struggle over Divine Politics in Saudi Arabia A uniquely remarkable book nestled in the most cherished humanist tradition of the social sciences. Anabel Inge has written a book that is bound to inform and challenge people's stereotypes about the lives of Salafi women in London. From conversion to religious study circles and match-making, the author navigates a difficult terrain with a penetrating anthropological gaze and careful attention to subtle details. The book is a joy to read.

Pnina Werbner, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute When is Islamic extremism not extremism? In this wonderfully lucid and scholarly ethnographic study of young Salafi women in London ... Anabel Inge probes what has become a dominant question in British twenty-first-century public policy ... closely observed, nuanced anthropological research over more than two years ... The Making of a Salafi Muslim Woman is in many ways a remarkable, innovative book which deserves a wide readership. It opens up a window on African Muslims, particularly Somalis, who both resemble and differ from the majority of British Muslims.

Katherine E. Brown, Irish Theological Quarterly The first sustained empirical research into this hard-to-reach community. It therefore provides rich everyday granularity rarely seen in this area -- perhaps not since Saba Mahmood's The Politics of Piety in 2014 ... Inge reveals a dynamic ...

Anabel Inge completed her PhD at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King's College London, where she won the AHRC Doctoral Award and Walton Scholarship. She has taught courses on Islam and the Anthropology of Religion at SOAS (University of London) and King's College London.

Note on Arabic Terms, Transliterations, Qur'anic Quotations and Paraphrasing Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 The Development of Salafism in Britain Chapter 2 Fieldwork Chapter 3 Becoming Salafi Chapter 4 Commitment and Belonging: The Role of Circles of Knowledge Chapter 5 Applying Salafism: Negotiating Teachings and Lived Realities Chapter 6 "Marriage Completes Half Your Religion, Sister": Salafi Match-Making Conclusion Notes Bibliography Glossary Information on Interviewees Interview Question Guide for Salafi Women Index