Muslim Futures, Futurisms, and the Self

This paper looks at two emerging projects in the American Muslim community: Muslim Futures by Utopia Studios and Muslim Futurism by MIPSTERZ. These two projects have complementary approaches to imagining Muslim futures in the US, and potentially globally, that engage various art forms. The author, as a participant observer in both projects, examines the approaches of each to explore the divergences between them to understand the Muslim communities each imagines. In this investigation, one cannot avoid the theological thinking underlying both groups, either implicitly or explicitly. As such, the projects are about the future of US Muslims, and also of Islamic and Religious Studies. The self-conceptualization of these groups is an invitation to reconsider the categories and approaches we use in the study of Muslims.