How to think about Muslim Difference

Drawing on his recently published book, The Muslim Difference (Yale 2022), Youshaa Patel explores the vexing Islamic discourse of reprehensible imitation (tashabbuh), a discourse that enjoins ordinary believers to embody and display their religious difference from Christians, Jews and others in public life. Moderating cross-cultural imitation and assimilation was as crucial to the construction of Muslim identity and alterity during Islam’s formative period as it is today. This lecture situates the religious discourse within Islamic scholarship and history, casting new light on contemporary debates in the West over visible expressions of Islam, from headscarves and beards to minarets and mosques.