We begin this article with a close look at some contemporary pictures of sexual life in the Muslim world that have been painted in certain sections of the Western media, asking how and why these pictures matter. Across a range of mainstream print media from the New York Times to the Daily Mail, and across reported events from several countries, can be found pictures of 'sexual misery'. These 'frame' Muslim men as tyrannical, Muslim women as downtrodden or exploited, and the wider world of Islam as culpable. Crucially, this is not the whole story. We then consider how these negative representations are being challenged and how they can be challenged further. In doing so, we will not simply set pictures of sexual misery against their binary opposites, namely pictures abounding in the promise of sexual happiness. Instead, we search for a more complex picture, one that unsettles stereotypes about the sexual lives of Muslims without simply idealising its subjects. This takes us to the journalism, life writing and creative non-fiction of Shelina Zahra Janmohamed and the fiction of Ayisha Malik and Amjeed Kabil. We read this long-form work critically, attending to manifest advances in depictions of the relationships of Muslim-identified individuals over the last decade or so, while also remaining alert to lacunae and limitations in the individual representations. More broadly, we hope to signal our intention to avoid both Islamophobia and Islamophilia in scrutinising literary texts.

Young Muslims in the UK are making space to gain greater control over their personal lives through the diction of ‘halal’ and ‘haram’ when reflecting on and negotiating personal relationships. This article explores the significance of ‘halal dating’ within the lived experiences and sexual relationships of young British Muslims. It draws upon 56 in-depth interviews conducted with young (16–30 years) British Muslims of Pakistani heritage. This research shows that, contrary to popular stereotype and widespread expectations, many young British Muslims do date, or have dated. By entertaining the idea that certain forms of dating may be halal, these young Muslims are finding and claiming agency to make relationship choices of their own.

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This paper examines the ongoing significance of Pakistani heritage in the lives of young British Pakistani Muslims. Drawing upon interviews with 56 women and men, it explores the link between Pakistani heritage and young peoples' lives, focusing upon marriage.Pakistani heritage is widely regarded as a constraint and an anachronism, which young people are jettisoning in favour of religious or secular identities: as Muslims, British, or both. This is a half-truth, at most. Some young people are turning away from Pakistaniness, but others are embracing and exploring versions and elements of this heritage as they make decisions about whether, when and whom to marry.Whether they are rejecting or embracing Pakistani heritage, young people are actively mobilizing the terms "Pakistan" and "Pakistani" as springboards from which to identify and make life choices. They are exploring possibilities rather than acknowledging inevitabilities, and approaching heritage as a resource rather than a constraint.

This article works at the intersection of creative, participatory and critical research. It explores an emergent qualitative methodology that is creative and participatory but not is always as critical as it might be: collaborative storytelling or storying. Understandings of critical collaborative storytelling and (more generically and inclusively) storying are developed through an account of a series of storying workshops. In these workshops, a group of young British Muslims made a short animated film titled ‘Halal Dating’. In their animated film, the participants explored an otherwise hard-to-name part of their lives: sexual relationships. Thus, in addition to its methodological interest, this article may appeal to readers with more substantive interests in religion, young people, gender and sexuality.