‘The book is a tour de force… Rajina brings British Bangladeshi Muslims forth with textured voices, while shedding light on how those voices are mediated by fields of power which craft the paradigms available to them.'
Victoria Redclift, Associate Professor of Political Sociology in the Social Research Institute, University of London

‘An important and innovative account of the evolution of the Bangladeshi community in East London … focusing upon issues of identity revolving around dress and language, analysing their centrality in the diaspora.’
Panikos Panayi, Professor of European History, De Montfort University

'This study makes a number of significant contributions. It offers a detailed account of how everyday practices are inflected by broader state narratives, particularly the Prevent Strategy and the discourse of integration. The attention to women’s voices is also significant, as is the sensitivity to contradiction and ambivalence, for the participants do not always speak with a single voice, nor do they conform to external expectations. The study’s strength lies in its refusal to resolve those tensions, allowing competing registers of experience to remain in view. The book also challenges prevailing assumptions about the category of the ‘British Muslim.’ By focusing on a specific ethnic and linguistic community, Rajina avoids abstraction and presents identity as something worked out under constraint. Her analysis of language, in particular, opens up important questions about cultural continuity and religious affiliation that are often missing in broader discussions of Muslim belonging in Britain.'
F. Redhwan Karim, The Muslim World Book Review