Delfin's Social Anth Blog

Do you believe any other music genre could play the same amount of influence as hip hop has on the islamic culture? If so, why? In your own opinion, do you think music plays a role in your own culture?  In what ways do you think Man-O-Wax and Tasleem views differ? Why do you think Khabeer felt compelled to write a book about the experience of young urban muslims?   Why do you think Khabeer focuses on the term “cool” when describing muslims? 

1. In what ways do you think Islam has a stronger connection to music rather than to art or literature? 2. Why do you think it was important for Muslim artists to have to be better than the popular artists of the time? One example in the book is that they had to be better than Lil Wayne. 3. Why do you think it meant more for these Muslims to have Islam be perceived as something "cool" as opposed to some other description? 4. What do you think would have been the impact of this book if it had been written by a non-Muslim?  5. Do you think this approach to research can be applied to different religions and through different forms of art apart from music? 

 How can the influence of hip hop and hip hop culture affect one's religion/religious beliefs? (Islamic in this case) Many hip hop artists have come from Chicago; thus, building a reputation of being a legendary place in which to experience music or even start off in the music industry itself. How do you think this influenced Khabeer to do research in Chicago? In your opinion, how do you think Black Islam played a central role in the development of hip hop's epistemology? How do you think this research study would have differed if it was conducted outside of the United States? What do you think about Man-O-Wax's view on how this mentality "has no geography." (p. 31) Does this go against the theory of environment shaping who you are as a person (in a sense)? How can everyone from Chicago have the same view as everyone from Los Angeles? Can they?