Role
Editors
Description
Examines how football and religion act together to shape both identity and society in Muslim contexts.
This book showcases how football and religion are becoming increasingly interlinked in Muslim contexts in order to interact with and influence both identity and society. The first part of the volume is devoted to issues of identity, showing how football aids in its construction, maintenance and subversion. The second part reveals the deep-rooted connections between football and political and religious establishments by demonstrating how these organisations frequently use the game to disseminate or propagate their larger messages.
Altogether, the contributors reveal how football has increasingly become a site for confrontations and negotiations over different understandings of religion – as a racial category, as gendered power and as it is invested in issues of state politics.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Beautiful Game on a Muslim Pitch: How Football and Religion Are Shaping Identity and Society
Aaron W. Hughes and Leif Stenberg
Part I. Football and the Maintenance of Identities
1. Benzema, Les Bleus and the Culture des Quartiers
Samuel Sami Everett
2. Football Nation, Muslim by Default
Carl Rommel
3. Jewish Israeli Football Fans and 'Traditionism'
Tamir Sorek
4. The Touchline of Fair Play: Football, Head Coverings and the Constantly Shifting Secular
Aaron W. Hughes
5. Pakistan’s Hidden Football History: Capital, Women and Challenging Social Norms
Leif Stenberg
Part II. Football and Social Maintenance
6. Fashioning Football Conservatism: Ruling Networks, Culture and the Creation of Turkey’s Istanbul Başakşehir Football Club
John McManus
7. Football Comes to the Silver Screen: The Contentious Politics of Football Spectatorship in Iran
Nazanin Shahrokni
8. Egyptian Islamism and the Noble Game of Football
Bjørn Olav Utvik
9. Why Hizbollah Loves Football
Dag Tuastad
About the Contributors
Index
Publication Information
Edinburgh University Press in association with the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC), Edinburgh, 2025
Series
Exploring Muslim Contexts
Volume
12
ISBN
9781399538442
Keywords
fans, football, muslim, player, religion, sport
Recommended Citation
Hughes, Aaron W and Leif Stenberg (2025), The Beautiful Game on a Muslim Pitch: How Football and Religion are Shaping Identity and Society. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press and AKU-ISMC.
Included in
Arabic Studies Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Islamic Studies Commons, Migration Studies Commons, Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Sociology of Religion Commons
Comments
The title's ebooks are available both as Open Access pdf and epub.