Mr.Men and Little Misses Becoming Muslim

Abstract

The most recent national figures of June 2022 reveal that the number of people who identify as Muslim in England and Wales has nearly doubled in the previous ten years. Although there is a wealth of anthropological literature on British Muslims and, Islamic children's literature is mostly unexplored. This is despite the growing publications and expanding Islamic book market due to increasing Muslim’s organizational activities in the United Kingdom. This dissertation attempts to investigate models of resistance and subjectivity regeneration in the popular culture of South Asian Muslim community in Britain through narrative analysis of a series of Islamic children picture books series titled, Tales from Dhikarville, produced by an Islamic publishing firm within the racially tense context of post-industrial Bradford in Northern England. The stories are an Islamic adaptation of the popular British children series Mr.Men and Little Misses. They represent an example of "stories people tell themselves about themselves" (Geertz 1973:448), where South Asian Muslim victimization is implicitly expressed. The analysis attempts to unpack implied narratives of victimisation, self-segregation, racial tension, and expected models of religiosity. The analysis is inspired by Clifford Geertz's theory of Thick Description. It is conducted by using the picture books series as a cultural event that is self-interpretive and can be deeply analysed and contextualised within the wider historical religious, racial, political and economic contexts of Muslim minority in Bradford, that is predominanly of Pakistani origin. The dissertation highlights the value of Islamic Children Literature as a medium for ethnographic knowledge, and the ongoing relevance of Geertz’s Thick Descrption in studies of popular culture in today’s interconnected world.