Three Muslim Families, Three Cities: A Review of Muslims of Metropolis

Kavitha Rajagopalan's Muslims of Metropolis is a text clearly invested in complicating the popular constructions of Muslims found in the mainstream. Rajagopalan narrates the stories of a Bangladeshi family in New York, a Palestinian family in London, and a Kurdish family in Germany. The narratives highlight the multiple migrations and displacements that occur throughout three generations. Returning to the Hanna quote for a moment, Muslims of Metropolis doesn't necessarily represent a lack of creativity, but unfortunately is a necessary intervention into popular discourse that informs our ideas about Muslims.

The decision to narrate the stories of Muslims from Bangladesh, Palestine, and Kurdistan is, indeed, an effort to highlight the diversity of the Muslim faith. The diversity of Islam is certainly not a point missed by Muslims. For many, it is nothing more than a sign from God. However validating the concept of diversity might be for Muslims, certain hierarchies and prejudices exist. Sites of global Muslim interconnectivity—the hajj, the [Western] mosque, and elsewhere—are not of interest to our author. Instead, the author invites the reader to understand the "Muslim world" as an imaginary and incomplete concept.

Muslims of Metropolis: The Stories of Three Immigrant Families in the West. By Kavitha Rajagopalan. Rutgers University Press, 2008, 283 pages.