Being Muslim on campus : religion, inclusion, and agency at a secular university / Abiya Ahmed.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ahmed, Abiya, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Muslim college students--United States.

Muslim college students.

College students--Religious life--United States.

College students.

Education, Higher--United States.

Education, Higher.

Multicultural education--United States.

Multicultural education.

Multiculturalism--United States.

Multiculturalism.

College students--Religious life.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2026]

Summary:

Being Muslim on Campus explores what it is like to be Muslim at a university that sees itself as secular. Based on three years of research with Muslim students on an American campus, it argues that American higher education isn't as neutral about religion as it claims to be. Through rich stories of student life, the book reveals how Muslim students experience, challenge, and reshape the boundaries between religion and secularity, offering a new way to understand diversity and belonging in American universities.

What does it mean to be Muslim at a university that imagines itself as secular? Drawing on three years of immersive ethnographic research at an elite and ostensibly secular institution, 'Being Muslim' on Campus re-examines how religion and secularity take shape within American higher education. While universities often imagine themselves as neutral spaces, either wholly secular or lately 'post-secular', this book reveals how Protestant norms quietly shape the very categories of religion and secularity and thus continue to structure university life and diversity on campus. Through nuanced portraits of Muslim students navigating academic life, student spaces, and campus diversity initiatives, this book shows that what passes as 'secular' is, in fact, deeply inflected by liberal Protestant assumptions about religion, one that privileges privatization, individual belief, and voluntarism.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Religion at a Secular Campus: Hidden in Plain Sight

False Secularity and Fragile Inclusion

Pluralism and DEI

Muslim Students as Critiques

Bellington University

Participants

Analytical Lenses

Chapter Overview

1 Both/And: Higher Education and the Making of "Protestant-Secularity"

Secularity

Secularity in the American Context

Secularity, Religion, and Higher Education

Origins

Religious Studies

Religious Identity (vs. Religious Beliefs)

Postsecularity

Protestant Secularity

2 Pluralism's Power: Muslim Inclusion on Protestant Terms

Pluralism on Protestant Terms

Pluralism in Civic Terms

Pluralism at BU

Religious Accommodation: "They're Great about That!"

Religious Discourse: "Swept under the rug"

Religious Encounter-Mawlid at a Church: "Wow, it's come to this"

Conclusion: Pluralism's Power

3 Privatization in Public: Protestant Logics and (In)Visible Religion

Campus Discursive Structure

MSAs, Revivalism, and Secularism

Disruption vs. Privatization

Gender in the American Muslim Context

Privatization on the Liberal End

MSA Elections and Friday Prayer

Privatization on the Conservative End

Conclusion: What Religious Privatization Reveals

4 Personalization of Faith: Outside the "Protestant-Secular" Box

Religious Individualism and College Students

Disaggregated Religious Individualism

Idris

Idris's Personalization

Amira

Amira's Personalization

Amani

Amani's Personalization

Conclusion

What Now?

Acknowledgments

Notes

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Bibliography

Index.

Religious Identity (vs. Religious Beliefs).

Postsecularity

Gender in the American Muslim Context.

Privatization on the Liberal End

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (Oxford Academic, viewed on August 26, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version : Ahmed, Abiya. Being Muslim on campus.

ISBN:

9780197773628

0197773621

OCLC:

1591537486

Publisher Number:

CIPO000391843

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license