Keeping It Halal: The Everyday Lives of Muslim American Teenage Boys

by John O'Brien

A compelling portrait of a group of boys as they navigate the complexities of being both American teenagers and good Muslims

This book provides a uniquely personal look at the social worlds of a group of young male friends as they navigate the complexities of growing up Muslim in America. Drawing on three and a half years of intensive fieldwork in and around a large urban mosque, John O'Brien offers a compelling portrait of typical Muslim American teenage boys concerned with typical teenage issues--girlfriends, school, parents, being cool--yet who are also expected to be good, practicing Muslims who don't date before marriage, who avoid vulgar popular culture, and who never miss their prayers.

Many Americans unfamiliar with Islam or Muslims see young men like these as potential ISIS recruits. But neither militant Islamism nor Islamophobia is the main concern of these boys, who are focused instead on juggling the competing cultural demands that frame their everyday lives. O'Brien illuminates how they work together to manage their "culturally contested lives" through subtle and innovative strategies--such as listening to profane hip-hop music in acceptably "Islamic" ways, professing individualism to cast their participation in communal religious obligations as more acceptably American, dating young Muslim women in ambiguous ways that intentionally complicate adjudications of Islamic permissibility, and presenting a "low-key Islam" in public in order to project a Muslim identity without drawing unwanted attention.

Closely following these boys as they move through their teen years together, Keeping It Halal sheds light on their strategic efforts to manage their day-to-day cultural dilemmas as they devise novel and dynamic modes of Muslim American identity in a new and changing America.

Genres: Nonfiction, Adult, Read For School, Academic, Ethnography, Anthropology

216 pages, Hardcover

Published September 12, 2017

About the author

Librarian Note: There are many authors with the name John O'Brien. This profile contains various authors. See below for disambiguated authors.

John 2^ O'Brien : Author of Leaving Las Vegas
John 3^ O'Brien : Children's Book Author & Illustrator
John 4^ O'Brien : Pseudonym of Patrick Joseph Hartigan, Poet
John 5^ O'Brien : Pioneer of Person Centered Planning
John 6^ O'Brien : Co-Founder and Editor of Review of Contemporary Fiction
John 7^ O'Brien : GR Author, Horror, Post Apocalyptic, Science Fiction
John 8^ O'Brien : GR Author, Environment
John 9^ O'Brien : John O'Brien OFM, GR Author, Religion, Christian
John 10^ O'Brien : Biography, author of At Home in the Heart of Appalachia
John 11^ O'Brien : Business, Investment
John 12^ O'Brien : Crime
John 13^ O'Brien
John 14^ O'Brien
John 15^ O'Brien: New Zealand children's book author

Reviews

[Duygu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keeping It Halal is an interesting ethnography about the young Muslim people. It is not from a perspective of an onlooker, O'Brien also gave some detail about how the ethnography shape throughout over the years.
O'Brien's book explains such topics like dating as a Muslim teenager that at the first glance a reader would response these are so simple and easy to research. However, John Obrien handles them perfectly, he puts forwards the sociological explanations and significance of everyday life of the young Muslim boys. I highly recommend.

[emre · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was a good ethnography that is useful both for understanding the muslim-american identity process and for providing insights into the transnational identity continuum.

[Emily Berg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read this for class, I didn’t read ch4 bc it wasn’t assigned but I’m still counting this as I read the whole thing bc like I deserve

[Victoria Bridenbecker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book helps better understand the experiences of Muslim Americans. O'Brien's work dives deep into different topics including cultural identity, religion, family, friendships, and challenges faced when they were in America.

[Talia Jacobsohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for class but really enjoyed.

[Jolynn Eckwortzel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible

This book sounds like a term paper written for the author to feel superior about his own intelligence. Completely awful.