ABSTRACT
This introduction chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book argues that answering the question how are modern halal markets constituted is increasingly important and complex in a globalized world. It explores issues such as the changing spaces of consumption, branding and the marketing of religious music as well as the consumption patterns of Muslim minority groups. The book looks at urban Muslims in China, where the Hui's halal food and eating habits stood out as the most important identity marker in contradistinction to the surrounding Han majority. In Turkey, the politics of identity among Islamists and secularists has been deeply influenced by a "market for identities", in the context of the globalization of the 1980s and 1990s. It explores halal from microsocial or everyday perspectives, but by taking into consideration the "bigger institutional picture" that frames the everyday consumption of halal products.
