Ethno-religious Identity Research Articles

The Immigration and Strategic Assimilation of Bene Menashe: A Zomian Jewish Community in Israel

ABSTRACT Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among a community of immigrants from the Eastern Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram, Bene Menashe, this article deals with how these immigrants have used ethnic identity to further integrate into mainstream Jewish and Israeli society. Originally known as the Kuki-Chin-Mizo, Bene Menashe claim to be descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, cut off from other Jews for 2,700 years. Several thousand members of the community have emigrated to Israel since the 1990s. Bene Menashe’s background as a singular community of East Asian immigrants in the peripheral town of KA and as recent converts to Judaism, as well as their Zomian (Upland Southeast Asian) background, are central to the community’s negotiation of ethnoreligious identity. Their efforts to integrate into contemporary Israeli society often contrast with the drive of Israeli cultural agents to emphasise the group’s lost tribal heritage, and the community has also both emphasised and sought to discard their previous ethnic identity. Bene Menashe in KA, this article shows, employ several strategies to further their ‘strategic assimilation’ into Israeli society.

KEMUDI’s Pursuance of Muslim Identity and its Implications to Malaysian Muslims

KEMUDI or Persatuan Kesedaran Melayu dan Islam (The Malay and Islamic Awareness Association) is a Malaysian based non-governmental organization (NGO) established in 2013. The organization aims to embrace and uphold a discreet Malay-Arab Muslim identity believed as being degraded by colonialism that introduces liberal democracy and capitalism to replace Malay monarchy. This qualitative study involves data collection from social media platforms, library research and semi-structured interviews. The descriptive analytical approach is applied within the organizational framework of Objective, Leadership Structure, Membership, Resource, Strategy and Tactic. The aim is to investigate KEMUDI’s origin, strategy and tactic as well as its variant of Muslim identity. It follows that KEMUDI’s pursuit of Muslim identity incorporates upholding a hybrid Arab ancestry (read: prophetic, ahl al-baytness) as the prerogative of Malay Muslim identity using strategical alliances and tactical series of lectures, publications as well as cultural activities. The Malay Arab Muslim identity is being pursued and maintained, symbiotically, as religiously significant and ethnically privileged to serve political, religious and social pursuits. The implication of KEMUDI’s ethno-religious identity to Malaysian Muslims focuses on three sectors of the National Integrity Plan (NIP); politics, civil society organization (CSO) and religion. It is found that the discreet dual Malay Arab Muslim identity adopted by KEMUDI has its share of commendatory and condemnatory implications on Malaysian Muslims.

Orthodox Christians in Lithuania

Abstract In this article we will examine how ethnicity (Russians and Russian speakers of mixed ethnic identities) and religion (Orthodoxy) interact and construct ethnoreligious identity in the case of Orthodox Christians in Lithuania. To investigate these aspects, the article will draw on data from qualitative fieldwork (2019–2021) and the analysis of articles from the official journal of the archdiocese of Vilnius and Lithuania. We argue that for the Orthodox community in Lithuania, the historically established close links of Orthodoxy with Russian Orthodox tradition and Russian identity are important today. However, a significant part of the Lithuanian Orthodox community identifies with the global (Byzantium) and/or local (Grand Duchy of Lithuania) Orthodox tradition and faces the challenge of including the Lithuanian language in religious education and practices.

“A Privilege and a Weapon”: Saudi Undergraduate Students’ Beliefs About Bilingualism

Bilingualism has become the norm—not the exception—in today’s globalized world. The development of bilingual proficiency in English and other languages is increasing worldwide. Saudi Arabia is one of many countries within the expanding circle of nations in which English (although with no official status) enjoys a special position as the sole foreign language taught in public schools. This study examined Saudi university students’ beliefs about issues surrounding bilingualism, particularly about their first language (L1), second language (L2), and potential benefits of being bilingual. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion with 15 university students. The findings showed that all students explicitly self-identified as bilingual based on their perceived linguistic repertoire and daily bilingual practices. Self-identification seems to have an empowering effect, which positively influences beliefs about bilingualism and language learning. As members of the dominant Arabic-speaking group, the students were able to achieve sequential additive bilingualism. Overall, the students saw bilingualism as an advantage and highlighted its perceived benefits, the instrumental importance of English, and the vital role of Arabic as a marker of their ethnoreligious identity.

Ethno-Religious Engagement, Minority Experiences, and Strengthening American Jewish Identity

Despite the complexity of and threats to American Jewish identity, little is known regarding how it is strengthened in adulthood. The purpose of this quantitative descriptive study was to understand the types of activities and minority experiences that strengthen Jewish identity and how this may differ from those with higher religious and cultural identification. Participants included 546 Jewish adults from 39 states who completed a survey covering topics related to Jewish activities, minority experiences, belongingness, continuity, Jewish identity, and demographics. Results indicated that regardless of cultural or religious identification, there were many similarly endorsed activities and minority experiences, even negative ones, that strengthen Jewish identity among adults. Implications for multicultural counseling competency when working with American Jews and ethno-religious identity are discussed.

The construction of ethnoreligious identity among Muslims and Christians in Rote Ndao Regency, Indonesia

There has been much research on the violent conflict in interactions between ethnic and religious communities in Indonesia. However, there is a noticeable gap in research focusing on how people can live harmoniously across these divides. This paper aims to explore the construction of ethnoreligious identity in Christian-Islamic encounters in Rote Ndao Regency, Indonesia. The fundamental question underlying this research is how the socio-historical and cultural backdrop contributes to forming 'Rote Islam' as an ethnoreligious identity and how processes of interaction, negotiation, and integration shape social interactions between Christians and Muslims. The research employs an ethnographic and phenomenological approach incorporating observations, interviews, participation, and literature studies to achieve this. The findings indicate that as an ethnoreligious identity, ‘Rote Islam’ is constructed from a process of interaction and social practice (collaborative) that has gone beyond religious and cultural boundaries. Examples of these practices include the gifting of land, the transformation of kinship through marriage, the transfer of technology, the tradition of kissing noses, the Kebalai dance, the celebration of religious holidays, and the identification of Leo, all of which illustrate the processes described in this study.

Reflecting on Determinant Factors of Violence in Light of the Governments' Access to Resources, Vested Political Interests and Ethno-religious Identities in the Rwandan Genocide After 25 Years

The research sought to know the primary determinant factors of violence in light of the governments' access to resources and vested political interests on the one hand and ethno-religious identities on the other in the context of the Rwandan Genocide. The Instrumentalism Theory of Ethnicity guided the research. The research used a qualitative research design within the phenomenological approach. A non-probability snowball sampling technique was used. The data collection method was interviews; hence, the data collection instruments were interview guides. A total of ten participants from the Republic of Rwanda participated in the interviews. Thematic data analysis was used to arrive at the research result. The research findings pointed to the determinant factors of violence linked to colonial powers, governments and ethnoreligious identities. The political interests and the resource issues of the governments are stronger determinants of violence than the ethnoreligious identities. This means that religion, ethnicity, and other cultural grievances remained secondary or instrumental factors that the external and internal governments utilised in the history of Rwanda. In addition, the research found that religion and ethnicity are important agents in exacerbating conflict and building peace and social transformation in the aftermath of conflicts. They bring the warring parties into reconciliation, healing, and enhancing peace. Therefore, the research findings concluded that the lack of natural resources, Rwanda being a land-locked country, and overpopulation of the geographical space exposed the people of Rwanda to virtual poverty. This socio-economic reality exacerbated the government's desperate search for access to meagre resources by external and internal political and ethnic authorities. Hence, the primary cause of the genocide was the desperate search for resources and political manoeuvres to secure them by holding on to power at any cost. The article recommends that all the stakeholders of Rwanda's peace and development must stand shoulder to shoulder to reduce poverty and create good governance.

Reversion, Revival, Resistance

Both in Iran and India, Zoroastrian communities have traditionally possessed a strong and rigid ethno-religious identity. In recent decades, however, debates regarding the opening of the communities to converts have become increasingly significant. At the same time, a growing interest in religious conversion to Zoroastrianism can be observed among Kurds, Tajiks, Iranians, and other populations. This article analyses the autobiographical account of two Muslim-born Iranian converts to Neo-Zoroastrianism and discusses how such conversions can be adequately framed. It criticises previous works on Neo-Zoroastrians for framing its religious practice as “unauthentic.” As Zoroastrian religiosities transform, especially among urban Tehran Zoroastrians, one can observe a certain convergence of reformed ethic Zoroastrian and Neo-Zoroastrian religious discourses. Taking this trend into account, Iranian Neo-Zoroastrianism can be framed as a movement for religious revival and reform as well as a vehicle of resistance against the state-promoted Shi’ite Islam of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Narratives of a Nation: Iraqi Literature in the Post-2003 Era

This review study offers developments of post-2003 Iraqi literature towards the concept of national identity while relieving socio-political turmoil. As such, the review study notices the synthesis of different scholarly approaches emphasizing themes and narrative shifts in contemporary works of Iraqi fiction. In such a context, diasporic literature and ethno-religious identity by Yasmeen Hanoosh in 2019 are differed from Al-Musawi in 2020 and Abbas in 2020 while discussing trauma and displacement both within Iraq and its diaspora. Khudayir 2017 looks at narrative techniques since the year 2003, Ali 2019 looks at literature as a preserving medium of the national identity from foreign influence, Ghareeb 2018 is more concerned with the cultural memory, and Abbas 2020 with displacement. Generally, it is apparent that Iraqi literature transforms from the pre-2003 dominant secular credentials to diversification in the marginalised identities, in addition to the role played by diasporic writers who brought about changes to what previously was a single-mode narrative. In such a nuanced analysis, it allows the representation of the way in which most of those themes are narrated by Iraqi authors-trauma, resilience, identity : contemporary Iraqi fiction is full of a life and transformative potential in building up cultural resilience and social justice.

Looking for Safe Haven in a City Torn Apart by War: Narratives of agency from internally displaced persons in the southern Philippines

In this paper, I interrogate the dominant representation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in humanitarian discourse as helpless victims in need of rescue. Based on the stories of IDP women and gender diverse individuals in the Philippines affected by the Zamboanga City siege in 2013, I illustrate how they exercised agency to shape their trajectories of displacement. The capacity of Filipino IDPs to contend with their displacement is shaped by their power as bakwit (evacuees), and by their class and ethnoreligious identities. While Christian Filipino IDPs had access to material, financial, and social resources, allowing them to engage in temporary migration after displacement, Muslim Filipino IDPs with limited access to these same resources found themselves in unwanted mobility and prolonged situations of displacement. Yet, Muslim Filipino IDPs do not lack agency, as they continue to actively and consciously forge new strategies to regain a sense of home in extended exile. Ultimately, while identifying bakwit power as a useful conceptual tool to make legible how IDPs exercised control at different stages of their displacement, embracing such a framework should not negate the long history of political violence in the region that continues to keep some people on the move.

African Jewish Communities in the Diaspora and the Homeland: The Case of South Africa

As part of this Special Issue devoted to research on the Jewish communities in Africa and their diaspora, we focus on the case of South African Jews who emigrated to Israel. First, we analyze the socio-religious and cultural context in which a Jewish diaspora developed and marked the ethno-religious identity of South African Jews both as individuals and as a collective. Second, we examine the role of ethno-religious identification as the main motive for migrating to Israel, and third, we show the role of ethno-religious identity in the integration of South African Jews into Israeli life. This study relies on data from a survey of South Africans and their descendants living in Israel in 2008, and in-depth interviews. The findings provide evidence for a strong Jewish community in South Africa that created a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people and a strong attachment to Israel. As expected, two of the key reasons for the decision to move to Israel were ideology and religion. The immigrants wanted to live in a place where they could feel part of the majority that was culturally and religiously Jewish. Finally, ethno-religious identities (Jewish and Zionist) influenced not only the decision making of potential immigrants but also their process of integration into Israeli life.

Bound and Burdened: How Contemporary Empalaos Rituals in Valverde Rewrite Crypto Muslim and Jewish History in Late Medieval Iberia

Abstract: Los Empalaos is a Semana Santa practice and living medievalism maintained today in the town of Valverde de la Vera in Extremadura, Spain. The town situates this practice in opposition to the luxurious daytime Holy Week festivities of major Spanish cities like Seville. A ghostly, endurance-based midnight performance enacted by lace-draped devotees, this spectacle draws pilgrims and tourists from across the world to the tiny town. Los Empalaos is traced by contemporary practitioners to fifteenth-century festivities that grew up around the expulsions of Jews. These recalled forced performances by converts intended to display their total transformation into "good Spanish Christians" through public bodily suffering and humiliation. This article argues that Los Empalaos uniquely incorporates a complex interplay of gender, rural and ethnoreligious identity, and traumatic historical memory while drawing on acts and events from late medieval Spain. This festive ritual encoded traces of Crypto-Jewish and Crypto-Muslim lamentations. The article reflects on the historicizing narrative of contemporary Semana Santa festivities as critical cultural spectacles whose repertoire recreates and transforms the medieval imaginary, obfuscating Jewish and Muslim histories.

The sustainability of ethno-religious identity as the dominant form of collective identification in Kosovo and Metohija

The sustainability of ethno-religious identity as the dominant form of collective identification in Kosovo and Metohija

Influence of Ethno-Religious Identity on Voting Behaviour in 2023 Gubernatorial Election in Lagos State, Nigeria

This research investigate the influence of ethno-religious identity on voting behaviour in 2023 gubernatorial election in Lagos State. Survey research design was used in conducting the research as such questionnaire was administered in collecting information from the respondents. The study population consists of all residents in Lagos East Senatorial District, Lagos State. A sample of 200 respondents was selected. Data were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) statistical method to analyse the formulated hypotheses. Findings from this study revealed that there is significant relationship between ethnic identity and voting behaviour in 2023 gubernatorial election in Lagos State, (r = .783; N=200; p< .05) and also there is significant relationship between religious identity and voting behaviour in 2023 gubernatorial election in Lagos State, (r = .719; N=200; p< .05) In conclusion, the study has shown that ethnicity and religion do influence the voting behaviours in the 2023 gubernatorial election in Lagos state and analysis of the vote showed that there was variation in the voting patterns of the people as is tilted towards ethnic and religious inclination. Finally, the study recommended, The winner of 2023 governorship election should form all ethnic inclusive government and ensures that no ethnic group would complain of marginalization and also the government should sustain unity among ethnic group in Lagos State and discourage disunity.

THE MOVEMENT OF THE ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION OF SHIRAK REGION IN LATE XX CENTURY – BEGINNING OF XXI CENTURY (ACCORDING TO THE RESULTS OF RA 2001 AND 2011 CENSUSES)

The purpose of this article is to present changes in the ethno-religious composition of the population of the Shirak region, the motives and motives influencing them. We tried to highlight the change in a person‟s ethnoreligious identity and value system. The article analyzes and identifies the ethnodemographic characteristics of the population of Shirak. In order to study the ethno-religious composition of the population of the region, we took the Armenian SSR of 1989 as a basis. RA 2001 and 2011 census data, ethnographic field materials, scientific publications on the topic. Let us recall that the ethno-religious composition of the population of the Shirak region has not been under close scrutiny, while in the Republic of Armenia it has been studied in great detail. The trend of the ethno-religious composition of the population of the newly independent RA marzes has hardly been studied from an ethnogeographic point of view. In that regard, we are trying to present the number of nationalities living in the region from an ethnogeographic point of view, what changes have been made and what factors are responsible for these changes. We have also tried to highlight the changes in the religious structure of the population, paying special attention to some issues of religious conversion and statistical data.

Amish Attitudes and Identity in Relation to Pennsylvania Dutch

Pennsylvania Dutch is the language of hearth and home for most Amish. As such, it serves the communication purposes of the in-group and is tightly interwoven with Amish identity. In this paper, I analyze data from a sociolinguistic survey that poses questions about language use, attitudes, identity, and religion. Current and former members of various Amish groups participated in this survey along with nonaffiliated descendants of the Amish. This study finds that each group—current, former, and descended—tends to have a different relationship with the language. Current members of the Amish and/or more proficient speakers unsurprisingly identify more strongly with the Pennsylvania Dutch language and their Amish background. Individual and region-based differences also emerge, demonstrating the complexity of the issues at hand and the diversity of Amish community practices and expectations surrounding language use. How current, former, and descended Amish view and engage with the language that sets them ethnically, religiously, and culturally apart from mainstream society has much to reveal about the interplay between minority languages and perceptions of ethnoreligious identity.

Family language policies during a global pandemic: challenges and opportunities for language maintenance in Arabic-English multilingual families in the USA

Abstract In this study, we analyze interview data from 17 mothers of Arabic-English multilingual families to examine their experiences of maintaining their children’s Arabic language development during the COVID-19 pandemic. We were interested in exploring the challenges they faced during the pandemic and their responses to those challenges with the resources available. Following a constant comparative method, our data analysis demonstrated that four main factors have impacted Arabic-English multilingual Muslim families’ language policies during the pandemic, i.e. (1) inner-family dynamics, (2) school closures, (3) children’s agency, and (4) family safety and wellbeing. Responding to those factors, participants’ family language policies were guided by their commitment to Arabic as the language of Islam (i.e. performing religious practices and maintaining connection with the written Islamic heritage) and as an indispensable component of their children’s ethno-religious identities. During the lockdown, when their children could not attend Arabic tutoring, mothers developed new strategies to support their children’s language socialization (e.g., Halaka, more frequent family visit, online tutoring). When schools switched to online learning, their children had more time to spend at home, which most mothers used as an opportunity to have their children practice Arabic more and, in some cases, conduct daily Arabic literacy tutoring at home. All those mothers’ creative responses to COVID-19 challenges were complexified by children’s agency and concerns about family safety and wellbeing.

The ignorance of hypervigilance: agnotology and halal along the Belt and Road

When actors engage in attentional biases, they focus on one area of knowledge at the expense of others. In contrast to previous literature, we contend that these biases do not necessarily result in selective ignorance. This is because different attentional biases, informed by dissimilar emotions and logics, affect not just what knowledge is approached over others but how it is approached. It hence produces different types of ignorance or non-knowledge—and by extension, forms of power—in the political economy. We develop a novel conceptual framework on hypervigilance as attentional bias. Then, through discourse analysis, we demonstrate how hypervigilance engendered practices of knowledge distortion; knowledge avoidance and elimination; and knowledge rejection which resulted in the (re)production of inaccurate knowledge and willful blindness that stifled the growth of China’s fledgling halal industry and halal Belt and Road Initiative. This article contributes to the literature on social identity’s influence on economic policies and politics, particularly to nascent scholarship on the links between non-knowledge, ethnoreligious identity and political economy. It proposes pathways through which attentional biases as ignorance extend racialized power, affecting access to resources, opportunities, and participation in the domestic and international political economy.

Ethnicity and Democracy: Managing Political Complexities in West Papua

This paper aims to reveal the relationship between ethnicity and democracy in the regencies of South Sorong in West Papua Province and Keerom in Papua Province, both situated in Indonesia’s easternmost island of Papua. By using Madisonian practice to examine the ethnic party and separatist logics in both regencies, this study explores the presence of cooperation, representation, and accommodation between ethno-religious identities in South Sorong, as well as between Indigenous Papuans (orang asli Papua) and the majority Muslim non-Papuan migrants (pendatang) in Keerom. The findings of this qualitative study suggest that there is a relationship between ethnicity and democracy that can be used in a positive way for promoting peace and resolving conflict.

‘Just kidding?’ – an exploratory audience study into the ways Flemish youth with a minoritized ethnic identity make sense of ethnic humor and the politics of offense

Abstract Recently, ethnic humor (targeting ethnoreligious identities) is increasingly questioned in European and Western countries, sparking controversy on online and traditional media platforms. Absent from the mediated and academic debate are the opinions from targeted subjects of the joke. This qualitative audience study aims to add to critical humor scholarship by providing insight into how targeted groups make sense of disputes of offense. We interviewed 35 participants (ages 15–24) with a minoritized ethnic identity (mostly a Moroccan or Turkish diasporic background) and religious identity (all identified as Muslim) on how they negotiate offensive (ethnic) humor. Moreover, we asked participants to reflect on the politics of offense (i.e. the power relations underlying the process of publicly claiming offense) and the role media play in the discussion of offended feelings in relation to (ethnic) humor. A thematic analysis of three focus groups indicates how participants’ negotiations were always influenced by contextual factors and tied to their identities, both on a sociopolitical and personal level. Further, participants were highly conscious about their minoritized position in debates on offensive ethnic humor and how this relates to societal power inequalities. As such, they recognized how the politics of offense regarding ethnic humor highlight boundaries between social groups.