The racialization of Muslim family life

This article situates Muslim family life within the study of race and racism to show how colonial ways of thinking inform dominant perspectives of Muslim families. It is concerned with family life in Western societies where people identifying as Muslim are a minoritized group. It identifies conceptual and theoretical limitations arising from persisting, uncritical acceptance of dominant normative understandings of family and highlights the significance of the extended family as an overlooked category in dominant perspectives of Muslim family life. It contributes to understanding by setting out how Muslim families are simultaneously racialized and routinely overlooked in scholarship, law and policy. It argues for a need to pay attention to family arrangements shaped by ideals of familism and collectivist principles while also challenging racialized ideas of Muslim families as problematically different, incompatible, and unchanging. The article provides examples to illustrate how doing so facilitates a better understanding of Muslim family life.