Muslims in Milwaukee : Placemaking, Belonging, and Activism

Muslims in Milwaukee explores the everyday lives, identities, and activism of Muslims in a midsized Midwestern city. Milwaukee is one of America’s most segregated cities, yet within its boundaries, a vibrant Muslim community is reshaping narratives and embodied practices of belonging, civic engagement, and urban placemaking. While considerable scholarship on Muslim Americans has concentrated on larger metropolitan centers like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, or on Detroit’s historic Arab neighborhoods, this book turns our attention to an understudied city where Muslim communities are small but rapidly growing, and where their experiences unfold within distinct local landscapes of race, segregation, and opportunity.

Drawing on over a decade of ethnographic fieldwork, surveys, and extensive interviews with community members, students, artists, activists, and leaders, the authors examine how local political, economic, and historical structures shape Muslim American experiences and civic participation, situating their analysis within the dual dynamics of belonging on one hand and exclusion and discrimination on the other.