This book interrogates the cultures and politics of Muslim youth in the global South and North to understand their trajectories, conditions, and choices. Drawing on wide-ranging research from Indonesia to Iran and Germany to the U.S., it shows that while the majority of young Muslims share many common social, political, and economic challenges, they exhibit remarkably diverse responses to them. Far from being "exceptional," young Muslims often have as much in common with their non-Muslim global generational counterparts as they share among themselves. As they migrate, forge networks, innovate in the arts, master the tools of new media, and assert themselves in the public sphere, Muslim youth have emerged as important cultural and political actors on a world stage.

The author of the book has carried out extensive research on young Muslims' identity in Australia and the UK. For this book she conducted ethnographic fieldwork in the form of in-depth, semi-structured interviews of over 200 young Muslims in five British cities: London, Leicester, Bradford, Leeds and Cardiff. Kabir's careful analysis of interview responses offers insights into the hopes and aspirations of British Muslims from remarkably diverse ethnicities: Algerian, Bangladeshi, Egyptian, Indian, Iranian, Iraqi, Kenyan, Lebanese, Libyan, Malawi, Mauritian, Moroccan, Nigerian, Pakistani, Palestinian, Singaporean, Somali, Sudanese, Syrian, Ugandan, Yemeni, and English, Danish and Scottish converts.

On the 9th January, BBC Manchester broadcasted a report on conversions to Islam in Britain. It included interviews with Lucinda Lavelle, a Muslim convert of Christian-Jewish background, and Leon Moosavi from Lancaster University who is currently working on his PhD thesis titled "Experiences of Muslim Converts in Britain". They talked about conversions to Islam and related issues like the identity or the acceptance by the social environment.

Tariq Ramadan, a professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, talks about what it means to be a Muslim and a Westerner. He gave the speech about his new book, What I Believe, at the Northwestern University, Evanston, on Friday, October 8. The event was organized by the Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern University. The speech is available online at the Buffet Center Webcasts.