Producing Islam(s) in Canada

During the last twenty years, public interest in Islam and how Muslims express their religious identity in Western societies has grown exponentially. In parallel, the study of Islam in the Canadian academy has grown in a number of fields since the 1970s, reflecting a diverse range of scholarship, positionalities, and politics. Yet, academic research on Muslims in Canada has not been systematically assessed.

In Producing Islam(s) in Canada, scholars from a wide range of disciplines come together to explore what is at stake regarding portrayals of Islam(s) and Muslims in academic scholarship. Given the centrality of representations of Canadian Muslims in current public policy and public imaginaries, which effects how all Canadians experience religious diversity, this analysis of knowledge production comes at a crucial time.

In Producing Islam(s) in Canada, twenty-nine interdisciplinary scholars analyze how academics have thought, researched and written on Islam and Muslims in Canada since the 1970s.

• Imprint: University of Toronto Press
• Published: December 2021
• Pages: 428

• epub: 9781487531331
• pdf: 9781487531324
• paperback: 9781487527884
• hardcover: 9781487505004

Amélie Barras is an associate professor in the Department of Social Science at York University.

Jennifer A. Selby is an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies and an affiliate member of the Department of Gender Studies at Memorial University.

Melanie Adrian is an associate professor in the Department of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University.

"Muslims in Canada are routinely viewed through several lenses: policy, politics, law enforcement, xenophobia, and academia. Producing Islam(s) in Canada flips the microscope around and asks: How is knowledge about this community produced? Who produces it? And what are the lasting impacts? The editors have assembled leading researchers of Islam in Canada to answer these questions. The result is a path-breaking book that is an instant must-read."

Amarnath Amarasingam, Assistant Professor in the School of Religion, Queen’s University

"This brilliant volume provides a critical analysis of how our research produces the categories ‘Muslims’ and ‘Islam(s).’ The careful unpacking of these categories provides critical insight into how these forms of knowledge production shape politics and society. Narrated by those captured within and outside these categories and written accessibly, this book is essential reading not only for anyone intending to study this field but for all of us who live in countries that place Muslims in a minority position."

Anna C. Korteweg, Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto Mississauga