The Construction of Authentic Muslim Identity among Nationally Diverse Women: The Case of an Arab Woman

Burcu Gokgoz-Kurt

doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.8n.6p.166

Abstract

This paper examines religious and ethnic identity construction among nationally diverse Muslim women, and shows how Muslim women may reflect asymmetrical power relations regarding their religiousness. While Muslims are usually treated as one homogenous community by those who are not very familiar with the Muslim communities, within the Islamic world, in fact, some Muslim-majority countries may be more strongly associated with Islam than others. Drawing on data gathered through spontaneous conversations, and informal, unstructured interviews during a gathering of four Muslim women, the present study reveals how one Muslim woman belonging to the Arab world authenticates herself in the presence of non-Arab Muslims through her discourse. Several factors such as economic wealth, heritage, politics, and language seem to help her claim “genuine” membership of Islam.

Highlights

Following September 11, 2001, there has been a tendency to regard nationally diverse Muslims as a non-diverse group
Drawing on data gathered through spontaneous conversations, and informal, unstructured interviews during a gathering of four Muslim women, the present study reveals how one Muslim woman belonging to the Arab world authenticates herself in the presence of non-Arab Muslims through her discourse
In order to explain how authentication is claimed through discourse, I mainly dwell upon the utterances of the participants, and provide four related explanations which will be discussed

Summary

Introduction

Following September 11, 2001, there has been a tendency to regard nationally diverse Muslims as a non-diverse group. While there is an existing “heterogeneity between and within the Islamic communities” 2), from an outsider’s perspective, Muslims are mostly treated as one homogenous community (Halliday, 2002). In the following, Modood (2003) reveals why treating Muslims as a non-heterogeneous community is quite erroneous: Muslims are not [...] a homogenous group. Ayatollah Khomeini is a hero and Osama bin Laden an inspiration; may be said of Kemal Ataturk or Margaret Thatcher, who created a swathe of Asian millionaires in Britain, brought in Arab capital and was one of the first to call for NATO action to protect Muslims in Kosovo. The category ‘Muslim’, is as internally diverse as ‘Christian’ or ‘Belgian’ or ‘middle-class ‘, or any other category helpful in ordering our understanding. (p. 100)

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