196 The American Journal of lslamic Social Sciences 20:3 & 4 

Muslim Minorities in the West: 

Visible and Invisible 

Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Jane 1 Smith, eds. 
New York and Oxford: AltaMira Press; 2002. 306 pages. 

The Muslim diaspora, which has become established as a significant area 
of publishing in the past 2 to 3 decades, is being charted by a number of 
books and journals. This edited collection is a valuable addition to the lit­
erature, although specialists in the field will notice some degree of over­
lap with existing sources. 

The book is divided into three sections exploring the Muslim experi­
ence in America (seven chapters), Europe (three chapters covering France, 
Germany, and Norway), and areas of European settlement (five chapters 
covering Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Caribbean). The 
best way to view this book is to consider it a series of case studies exam­
ining how Muslims in different contexts have moved from being tempo­
rary and peripheral individual sojourners to being, within their adopted 
societies, generally well-established communities that have largely over­
come their internal differences and external structural barriers in order to 
be publicly recognized as a part of multicultural and multi faith communi­
ties and societies. Many of the contributors believe that Muslim minorities 
are growing, dynamic, confident, and demographically "young" in most of 
their new societies, and that wherever they have established themselves, 
they have sustained their presence and thrived, sometimes in the face of 
extreme hostility. 

This case study character has advantages and disadvantages. On the 
one hand, this reviewer found it extremely valuable to learn more about 

the experience of some very specific minority groups, such as Sahelians in 
France, who are usually ignored and overshadowed in the literature by the 
overwhelming Algerian-Moroccan presence in France. Likewise, with rel­
atively little academic material available on Muslims in New Zealand, for 
example, this book fills many of the academic gaps in the literature. The 
first-hand accounts from previously unpublished sources were similarly 
valuable, and the chapter on establishing the Islamic Party in North 
America constitutes an important documentary record. On the other hand, 
some chapters went over well-established ground, such as Turks in 
Germany. Specialists on Muslim minorities will find that some chapters 
repeat already well-known data and profiles oflslam in these contexts. 





198 The American Journal of lslamic Social Sciences 20:3 & 4 

group: women. Furthermore, it is a significant challenge because, as 
Tamara Sonn points out in her chapter on South Africa, Muslims in minor­

ity western contexts also act as "pioneers in the struggle to reconcile 
Islamic principles with life in technologically developed and pluralistic 
societies." Seminaries located in the Islamic world are perhaps not the best 
training ground for meeting these diverse challenges. 

Far from telling anything like a complete (or even incomplete) story 
of Muslim minority experience in the West, this book nevertheless brings 
together a fascinating collection of d iverse and often rich accounts of 
Muslim life in different contexts. The surprises are many (Did you know 
that New Zealand was the largest exporter of halal meat?), but the vari­
ability of the contributions in terms of actually relating empirical experi­
ence to the theoretical issues of visibility and invisibility makes the book 
useful, but not outstanding. 

Sophie Gilliat-Ray 

Religious and Theological Studies 
Cardiff University, UK