As Muslim American representation becomes more prominent in popular culture, how are they continued to be portrayed?
Rosemary Pennington's new book Pop Islam: Seeing American Muslims in Popular Media) (Indiana University Press, 2024) explores the “trap of hypervisibility” faced by Muslims in popular media and the burden of representation that follows them. More representation may not always be generative, if there is not an intentional move away from stereotypes or caricatures of Muslim humanity to portraying real complicated and diverse human beings.
Using a wide variety of case studies from prime-time television shows, such as Lost, 24, or Ramy to stand-up comedians such as Hasan Minhaj, Aziz Ansari, Kumail Nanjiani to Zainb Johnson, reality shows (like Project Runway or Top Chef), magazines (like Teen Vogue) and comic books (Ms. Marvel), Pennington carefully guides us through some of the binary representations we continue to see in popular culture around us, especially those that are framed as portraying "authentic" Muslims. Thus representation may not be the only answer, as Islamophobia and anti-Muslim violence continues to grow, but more is needed as we more forward, as the book contends. This book will be of great interest to those who work on popular culture, media, comedy, gender, and Islam, and a great addition to courses on Islam.
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