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By Any Media Necessary: Mapping Youth and Participatory Politics

Batman Welcomes Ramadan

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American Muslim Youth Networks
About

A growing number of American Muslim youth aspire to produce and share media. For many of them, this aspiration connects to ongoing politicized struggles around how Muslims and Islam are viewed in Post 9/11 America. As the youth tap new media resources to reshape the communication environment and create new images of what it means to be Muslim in America, they simultaneously confront the chilling effects of various forms of surveillance, which encourage self-censorship. The silencing power of these concerns becomes particularly potent in the context of networks that support expression of diverse narratives, free discussion of issues and the formation of loosely defined communities that bypass more controlled organizational structures.

See Sangita Shresthova's By Any Media Necessary chapter, Storytelling and Surveillance, to learn more about this group of young people and their engagement in participatory politics.

Contributed by Sangita Shresthova on 5/10/14
American Muslim Youth Network Media
Batman Welcomes Ramadan
The Truth with Hasan Minhaj - Sikh Temple Shooting, Missouri Mosque Burning
Want to Skype Vid Me?
A Moveable Mosque - Deena's Footsteps through Prayer
Firstday Fast [Offical Video] - Birthday X Spoof, Farid Music
30 Mosques Project
Storytelling and Surveillance This chapter offers a study of civically engaged American Muslim youth as they confront the often harsh political climate of Post-9/11 America. Moderate Muslim voices have struggled to find a means of entering an increasingly polarized discussion around Islamaphobic and Radical Islamic perspectives. Our focus is on storytelling, defined here as a “collective activity in which individuals and groups contribute to the telling, retelling, and remixing of stories [or narratives] through various media platforms” (Brough & Shresthova), making use of various media that include theater, photography, blogs, books and videos. Storytelling is central to all of our case studies, but here, rather than tapping into fictional stories as might be common in fan activism, Muslim American youth are seeking to construct stories to explain the contradictions in their lived experiences. Wajahat Ali, a playwright and outspoken young American Muslim activist, observes: The future of Islam in America has to be written by Muslim Americans who boldly grab hold of the conch and become heroes of our own narratives. We can no longer exist in culturally isolated cocoons or bury our heads under the sand waiting for the tide to subside on its own. We must follow the traditions and values of Islam and America by being generous and inviting with our narratives. We must tell stories that are “by us, for everyone,” thus accurately reflecting the spectrum of shared common values that exist simultaneously within the Muslim and American spirit. A study of activists and community networks affiliated with the Muslim Youth Group (MYG) at the Islamic Center in Southern California and the Young Leaders Program at the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), highlights storytelling as a crucial dimension of efforts by American Muslim youth to express and mobilize around their identity in the United States. 30Mosques, a project that circulated through the MPAC and MYG networks, is a prominent example of such storytelling. Founded by Bassam Tariq and Aman Ali in 2009, the project tapped new media to document and share American Muslim Ramadan experiences and highlight diversity and shatter stereotypes. Over its four years of existence and through various online platforms, the project shared stories, encouraged dialogues, and increased visibility for diverse American Muslims.

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