Jon Van Til
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479855346
- eISBN:
- 9781479851638
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479855346.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter looks at the narratives of upwardly mobile, highly skilled Shia Ismaili Muslims employed in corporate America, which provide an important context for examining the intersection of ...
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This chapter looks at the narratives of upwardly mobile, highly skilled Shia Ismaili Muslims employed in corporate America, which provide an important context for examining the intersection of transnational Islamic sectarian ideologies with racialized and classed regimes of U.S. labor flows, ideologies of the model minority, the neoliberal capitalist economy, and Pakistani nation building. Since the changes in U.S. immigration laws in 1965, Houston’s energy sector has attracted highly skilled Asian technical experts and professionals, as well as students pursuing higher education in the hard sciences. The collapse of Enron, an energy company based in Houston, in autumn 2001 resulted in massive layoffs, causing unexpected unemployment among Shia Ismaili Muslims. At this moment of crisis, they mobilized transnational Shia Ismaili networks to alleviate the impact of the loss of unemployment and rebuild their careers.Less
This chapter looks at the narratives of upwardly mobile, highly skilled Shia Ismaili Muslims employed in corporate America, which provide an important context for examining the intersection of transnational Islamic sectarian ideologies with racialized and classed regimes of U.S. labor flows, ideologies of the model minority, the neoliberal capitalist economy, and Pakistani nation building. Since the changes in U.S. immigration laws in 1965, Houston’s energy sector has attracted highly skilled Asian technical experts and professionals, as well as students pursuing higher education in the hard sciences. The collapse of Enron, an energy company based in Houston, in autumn 2001 resulted in massive layoffs, causing unexpected unemployment among Shia Ismaili Muslims. At this moment of crisis, they mobilized transnational Shia Ismaili networks to alleviate the impact of the loss of unemployment and rebuild their careers.
Ahmed Afzal
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479855346
- eISBN:
- 9781479851638
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479855346.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This book offers an engaging and insightful look at contemporary Muslim American life in Texas. It illuminates the dynamics of the Pakistani Muslim community in Houston, a city with one of the ...
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This book offers an engaging and insightful look at contemporary Muslim American life in Texas. It illuminates the dynamics of the Pakistani Muslim community in Houston, a city with one of the largest Muslim populations in the south and southwestern United States. Drawing on interviews and participant observation, the book explores everyday Muslim lives at the intersection of race, class, profession, gender, sexuality, and religious sectarian affiliation to demonstrate the complexity of the South Asian experience. It incorporates narratives of gay Muslim American men of Pakistani descent, countering the presumed heteronormativity evident in most of the social science scholarship on Muslim Americans and revealing deeply felt affiliations to Islam through ritual and practice. It also includes narratives of members of the highly skilled Shia Ismaili Muslim labor force employed in corporate America, of Pakistani ethnic entrepreneurs, the working class and the working poor employed in Pakistani ethnic businesses, of community activists, and of radio program hosts. Decentering dominant framings that flatten understandings of transnational Islam and Muslim Americans, such as “terrorist” on the one hand, and “model minority” on the other, the book offers a glimpse into a variety of lived experiences. It shows how specificities of class, Islamic sectarian affiliation, citizenship status, gender, and sexuality shape transnational identities and mediate racism, marginalities, and abjection.Less
This book offers an engaging and insightful look at contemporary Muslim American life in Texas. It illuminates the dynamics of the Pakistani Muslim community in Houston, a city with one of the largest Muslim populations in the south and southwestern United States. Drawing on interviews and participant observation, the book explores everyday Muslim lives at the intersection of race, class, profession, gender, sexuality, and religious sectarian affiliation to demonstrate the complexity of the South Asian experience. It incorporates narratives of gay Muslim American men of Pakistani descent, countering the presumed heteronormativity evident in most of the social science scholarship on Muslim Americans and revealing deeply felt affiliations to Islam through ritual and practice. It also includes narratives of members of the highly skilled Shia Ismaili Muslim labor force employed in corporate America, of Pakistani ethnic entrepreneurs, the working class and the working poor employed in Pakistani ethnic businesses, of community activists, and of radio program hosts. Decentering dominant framings that flatten understandings of transnational Islam and Muslim Americans, such as “terrorist” on the one hand, and “model minority” on the other, the book offers a glimpse into a variety of lived experiences. It shows how specificities of class, Islamic sectarian affiliation, citizenship status, gender, and sexuality shape transnational identities and mediate racism, marginalities, and abjection.
Ahmed Afzal
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479855346
- eISBN:
- 9781479851638
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479855346.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This introductory chapter frames this community-centered ethnographic study of the Pakistani experience in Houston over a ten-year period, from 2001 to 2011. Given the heightened U.S.-government ...
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This introductory chapter frames this community-centered ethnographic study of the Pakistani experience in Houston over a ten-year period, from 2001 to 2011. Given the heightened U.S.-government surveillance and the racializing of Muslim Americans during the last decade, it challenges commonly held perceptions regarding the complicity of Islam with global terrorism. The book itself includes narratives that reflect the internal diversity of the Pakistani population and includes members of the highly skilled Shia Ismaili Muslim labor force employed in corporate America; Pakistani ethnic entrepreneurs, and the working class and the working poor employed in Pakistani ethnic businesses; gay Muslim American men of Pakistani descent; community activists; and radio program hosts. These narratives provide glimpses into the variety of lived experiences of Pakistani Americans and show how specificities of class, profession, religious sectarian affiliation, citizenship status, gender, and sexuality shape transnational identities, and mediate racism, marginalities and abjection.Less
This introductory chapter frames this community-centered ethnographic study of the Pakistani experience in Houston over a ten-year period, from 2001 to 2011. Given the heightened U.S.-government surveillance and the racializing of Muslim Americans during the last decade, it challenges commonly held perceptions regarding the complicity of Islam with global terrorism. The book itself includes narratives that reflect the internal diversity of the Pakistani population and includes members of the highly skilled Shia Ismaili Muslim labor force employed in corporate America; Pakistani ethnic entrepreneurs, and the working class and the working poor employed in Pakistani ethnic businesses; gay Muslim American men of Pakistani descent; community activists; and radio program hosts. These narratives provide glimpses into the variety of lived experiences of Pakistani Americans and show how specificities of class, profession, religious sectarian affiliation, citizenship status, gender, and sexuality shape transnational identities, and mediate racism, marginalities and abjection.
James C. Nicholson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813141671
- eISBN:
- 9780813142470
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813141671.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
The fourth chapter introduces Sultan Mohammed Shah, the third Aga Khan and spiritual leader of millions of Ismaili Muslims. The chapter begins with a brief history of the Aga Khans’ historical ties ...
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The fourth chapter introduces Sultan Mohammed Shah, the third Aga Khan and spiritual leader of millions of Ismaili Muslims. The chapter begins with a brief history of the Aga Khans’ historical ties to the Prophet Mohammed and then provides a description of the third Aga Khan’s life and career as a political and religious leader, diplomat, and businessman. The chapter concludes with an explanation of the Aga Khan’s entrance into European aristocratic society, where he interacted with British royals such as Queen Victoria and Kings Edward VII and George V, and his reintroduction to the sport of horse racing, which he had loved as a child in India.Less
The fourth chapter introduces Sultan Mohammed Shah, the third Aga Khan and spiritual leader of millions of Ismaili Muslims. The chapter begins with a brief history of the Aga Khans’ historical ties to the Prophet Mohammed and then provides a description of the third Aga Khan’s life and career as a political and religious leader, diplomat, and businessman. The chapter concludes with an explanation of the Aga Khan’s entrance into European aristocratic society, where he interacted with British royals such as Queen Victoria and Kings Edward VII and George V, and his reintroduction to the sport of horse racing, which he had loved as a child in India.
James C. Nicholson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813141671
- eISBN:
- 9780813142470
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813141671.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Never Say Die tells the story of the first Kentucky-bred winner of the Epsom Derby, whose historic 1954 victory in Europe’s most famous race sent shockwaves through the world of Thoroughbred racing. ...
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Never Say Die tells the story of the first Kentucky-bred winner of the Epsom Derby, whose historic 1954 victory in Europe’s most famous race sent shockwaves through the world of Thoroughbred racing. Never Say Die’s win in the Epsom Derby was an early signal of a shift in the balance of power within the sport of Thoroughbred racing toward North America. In the two decades that followed, American horses - long derided as inferior to European runners -- would enjoy an unprecedented period of success in some of Europe’s most prestigious races, sending the world’s leading Thoroughbred owners to Kentucky in search of top equine prospects. The infusion of international capital created a boom in Kentucky bloodstock markets in the 1970s and 1980sand laid the groundwork for the modern international structure of the multi-billion-dollar Thoroughbred industry. The unusual cast of characters in New Say Die’s story include: Isaac Merritt Singer, the bigamist inventor of the globally popular Singer sewing machine; Robert Sterling Clark, an accused conspirator in a plot to overthrow the United States government and heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune; the Aga Khan, the immensely wealthy spiritual leader of some fifteen million Ismaili Muslims; and Mona Best, whose decision to pawn her jewelry to place a bet on Never Say Die to win the Derby would impact the career of the most successful musical group of all time, the Beatles.Less
Never Say Die tells the story of the first Kentucky-bred winner of the Epsom Derby, whose historic 1954 victory in Europe’s most famous race sent shockwaves through the world of Thoroughbred racing. Never Say Die’s win in the Epsom Derby was an early signal of a shift in the balance of power within the sport of Thoroughbred racing toward North America. In the two decades that followed, American horses - long derided as inferior to European runners -- would enjoy an unprecedented period of success in some of Europe’s most prestigious races, sending the world’s leading Thoroughbred owners to Kentucky in search of top equine prospects. The infusion of international capital created a boom in Kentucky bloodstock markets in the 1970s and 1980sand laid the groundwork for the modern international structure of the multi-billion-dollar Thoroughbred industry. The unusual cast of characters in New Say Die’s story include: Isaac Merritt Singer, the bigamist inventor of the globally popular Singer sewing machine; Robert Sterling Clark, an accused conspirator in a plot to overthrow the United States government and heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune; the Aga Khan, the immensely wealthy spiritual leader of some fifteen million Ismaili Muslims; and Mona Best, whose decision to pawn her jewelry to place a bet on Never Say Die to win the Derby would impact the career of the most successful musical group of all time, the Beatles.
