Construction Of Muslim Identity Research Articles

External Definition or Self-assertion of Separateness: Understanding Muslim Identity in Post-colonial India

Muslim identity like any other identity is discretely constituted, defined by language, religion, caste, class, sect and numerous other diverse roles. Such an understanding largely seems to have eluded the public philosophy of the post-colonial Indian state and what seems to have remained central to it is their exclusive definition in religious terms and an exclusive emphasis on their religious engagements. This paper looks at this external religious definition of the community and identifies this definition in the ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ identity construction processes and interprets other important developments which have all compounded to shape a separate Muslim identity in India. It analyses the construction of Muslim identity and attempts to understand the separateness that they have exhibited in post-colonial India. The argument follows that Muslim identity in India has been externally defined with an emphasis on religious aspects and that their separateness remains a quintessential result of this external definition.

Construction of Muslim Identity: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Obama’s Speech at Cairo

President Obama’s speech delivered at Cairo in 2009 is considered to be a historical event in the history of the relationship between Muslims and the West. The speech was applauded for its eloquence and rhetoric. It was appreciated among the Muslims and the Americans alike since it promised for treating Muslims as partners and not as patrons anymore and depicted Muslims as the precursors of the human civilization. However, the centuries-old tinge of us and them was observed in the contents of the speech. Therefore, the speech was dissected with the tool of CDA, as proposed by Van Dijk , to reach the underlying socio-cognitive makeup of the speaker. The analysis revealed that Muslims to Obama / West are still the violent extremists, intolerant, hostage keepers, educationally and technologically backward and in fact the out-groups despite their collaboration in the war against terrorism.

IBADAT, THE BODY AND IDENTITY: ISLAMIC RITUALS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF MUSLIM IDENTITY

This library-based theoretical paper examines three types of Islamic rituals or ibadat, that is salat, sawm, and hajj, to understand the important of embodied rituals in the construction of Muslim identity. By utilizing several key theoretical ideas including Durkheim‟s Sacred and Profane, Bell‟s ritual and ritualization, and Whitehouse‟s modes of religiosity, this paper corroborates the previous findings in the religious and sociological studies that the body plays an important role in the construction of identity, including religious identity such as Muslim identity. This embodied or ritualized body, with its characteristics of formality, fixity, and repetition, constructs, upholds, enforces and maintains Muslim identity through its rituals of salat, sawm, and hajj

The Impossibility of Muslim Citizenship

ABSTRACTIn this article I ask a seemingly simple question—How can a Muslim be a liberal citizen? In order to explore this question I define who and what was indexed by the term “Muslim” at various points in United States history. I argue that the figure of the Muslim has existed as an existential other upon which otherness, violence, and suspicion was written. I ask how the historic construction of Muslim identities fuels contemporary surveillance programs predicated on an intrinsic fear of Muslim bodies. Drawing upon a decade of ethnographic research with Muslim communities across the United States, I examine Countering Violent Extremism programs. I argue that such policing function re-inscribe and normalize White supremacy and Muslim suspicion of, and within, Muslim communities. Finally, I examine the question of citizenship in neoliberal times and ask how we might understand citizenship rights, particularly for Muslim communities, in the contemporary United States.

The Racialization of Muslims: Empirical Studies of Islamophobia

Racialization is a concept that is theoretically underdeveloped. Although there has been an increased interest in Islamophobia since 9/11, it is very rarely discussed as racial in its nature. In this special issue on Islamophobia and the Racialization of Muslims scholars connect racism to Islamophobia. This issue situates racialization as a way to explain and understand Islamophobia, as racism towards a Muslim population. Through empirical studies, this issue uncovers the processes of racialization of Muslims and the rise of Islamophobia in both Europe and the USA. Case studies include the experiences of middle-class US Muslims; of white British converts to Islam; of young working-class British-Pakistani men; policing practices in Ireland; and the construction of Muslim identities through online comments about a reality television show. As well as identifying some issues specific to the nation, each case study also reveals the intersection of the racialization process with class and gender experiences.

The Shi‘ite Law of Migration

This study surveys rulings on the subject of migration issued by Imami Shi‘ite legal scholars from the formative 10th – 14th centuries to contemporary times. Prefacing this survey with an examination of hijrah (migration) in the Qur’an and early Imami traditions, the study opens up reflection on an area of Islamic legal discourse that is largely ignored in the literature on Islam in the West. In examining the legal discourse on migration as an historical phenomenon central to the early construction of Muslim identity and not simply as an ad hoc response to modern contingencies, we are able to situate the rulings of traditional modern legal scholars within a long-standing discursive framework. The study demonstrates that while early jurists constructed a rationale for migration to Muslim-held territory that served the interests of the community or state and religion, jurists of the modern period re-employ the same theoretical models while adjusting them to respond to the historical circumstances of cultural and religious globalization.

A comparative approach to Pakistani fiction in English

This survey paper adumbrates an opening up of Pakistani fiction in order to draw comparisons with other writing by novelists of Muslim heritage. While Pakistani writers tend to be analysed as part of broader South Asian trends, Pakistan also faces west and has concerns in the Middle East, Central Asia, Europe and beyond that derive from its Muslim identity. Without overstating the idea of a universalizing umma (which can lead to neglect of the differences and tensions between different Muslim groups), the approach has the advantage of bringing together writers from Muslim countries to shed light on each other. South Asians, Arabs, and Africans are discussed together, because of their shared religious heritage, but never overlooking their vast contextual variations. Insights and themes unique to the research include the fact that writers often tap into a canon of largely Muslim literature and art from the Middle East, South Asia and elsewhere, which responds to key moments in the construction of Muslim identity, so intertextuality is a significant concern.

The Place of Islam in the Geography of Religion: Trends and Intersections

AbstractThis article reviews recent geographical research on Islam and Muslim identities. In the wake of the events of 11 September 2001, the forms taken by public debate surrounding Muslim communities and societies have been manifold and not always edifying. In the present political climate, where public attitudes to a particular suite of issues are often as misinformed as they are deeply held, the need for academics to furnish insights born out of robust research is acute. While the responses of academics to debates coalescing around Muslim communities and identities have emanated predominantly from religious studies, sociology and anthropology, geographers, with their attention to the spatial components inherent to the articulation of social identities, are making an increasingly significant contribution to our knowledge in this field. This article reviews this contribution, focusing on four areas in which geographical research on Islam has been most pronounced: Muslim residential segregation and ‘community cohesion’; the relationship between Islamic dress codes and spatial context in the articulation of Muslim gender identities; the contestation of space that has attended the architectural expression of Muslim identity in urban landscapes and the spatial politics embedded in the construction of Muslim identities at simultaneously national and transnational scales. While the predominant focus is therefore geographical, the article also establishes linkages to other writings on the spatiality of Islam where relevant to the specific themes under discussion.

Memory, Power, and Performance in the Construction of Muslim Identity

Memory, Power, and Performance in the Construction of Muslim Identity