Ala Alhourani is a Palestinian Anthropologist and is a PhD candidate at the University of Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. His research focused on the aesthetic and performances of Muslim-ness in Cape Town. Ala's master's degree looked at the various ways in which students at UWC make different meanings of two locally produced soap operas, Isidingo and Generation, and the way the South African National Broadcaster (SABC) contributed to nation-building projects. He is an activist and teaches drumming and drama at various townships in and around Cape Town.

Abstract
The paper explores “aesthetic formations” (Meyer, 2009) of Muslim-ness in Cape Town; the related politics and processes of authenticity and materialization of Muslim communitarian cultural style. The paper discusses the making and remaking of Muslims “imagined community” (Anderson, 1991) in Cape Town that is marked with great diversity and complexity (Tayob, 2002).