Islam in the West Perceptions and Reactions

This book focuses on the way Muslims and mainstream societies in the West, especially in America, Australia, and Europe, perceive each other. It focuses on the meaning of being a Muslim in a multicultural, multi-religious, and technologically developed world. The essays in the volume explore the socio-political, cultural, and historical differences between the two groups, Muslims and Western societies, while attempting to reconcile some of these differences in creative ways by initiating constructive dialogues between them. It also takes into account the tensions, challenges, and complexities between these communities across various contexts, including, schools, universities, media, government, private, and public institutions. This volume thus explores this interplay between perceptions and misperceptions by delving into the societal structures of Western host and immigrant communities.

Abe W. Ata is of a Palestinian Lebanese Australian background, born in Bethlehem. He graduated in social psychology at the American University of Beirut, and was nominated as a delegate to the United Nations' World Youth Assembly in New York. He gained his doctorate at the University of Melbourne in 1980 and has since been teaching and researching at several Australian, American, Jordanian, West Bank, and Danish universities, currently at Deakin University, and Adjunct Professor at Swinburne University; Jan A. Ali is a Religious Sociologist specialising in Islam. He is a Senior Lecturer in Islam and Modernity in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at the University of Western Sydney.