Muslim Boys Research Articles

How gendered religious norms contribute to the emerging gender gap in Muslim youths’ interreligious friendships

Recent research finds that Muslim girls increasingly have in-group friendships in adolescence, while Muslim boys remain more open to interreligious friendships. This gender gap mirrors established findings of female Muslims’ lower involvement in interreligious romantic relationships, which is attributed to gendered religious norms. In this study, we examine whether gendered religious norms also contribute to the emerging gender gap in Muslim youths’ interreligious friendship-making. Building on the literature on intergroup dating, we identify religiosity, parental control, and leisure time activities as key factors through which religious norms may not only constrain Muslim girls’ intergroup romantic relationships, but also their interreligious friendships. We also examine the contribution of gendered experiences of religious discrimination and rejection by non-Muslims to religious friendship-making. We study 737 Muslim youth from age 11–17 with six waves of longitudinal German data and find that religiosity, parental control, and leisure time activities all contribute to the emerging gender gap in interreligious friendship-making. Religiosity is associated with more in-group friendships, but only rises among Muslim girls in adolescence, not among boys. By contrast, parental control increases among both genders, but it only constrains girls’ interreligious friendships. Muslim girls’ declining participation in clubs also is associated with fewer interreligious friendships. Gendered experiences of religious discrimination and rejection do not contribute to the gender gap. Jointly, these factors explain one third of the emerging gender gap in interreligious friendship-making. This finding suggests that gendered religious norms not only limit interreligious romantic relationships but also interreligious friendships of Muslim girls.

“He Could Be Dangerous”: Orientalism, Deradicalization, and the Representation of Refugee Muslim Boxers in TSN’s Radical Play

In April 2016, TSN (The Sports Network), one of Canada’s most prominent broadcasting stations, aired a documentary miniseries,Radical Play, that describes how European organizations are “harnessing sport to prevent isolated Muslim youth from joining extremist groups.” The documentary focuses on Younes, a 17-year-old refugee in Hamburg, Germany, who has been recruited to participate in a deradicalization program run through a local boxing gym. This article offers a contextualized reading ofRadical Playthat explores how the problem of radicalization is constructed in the Canadian context, how sport is positioned in relation to deradicalization projects, and how deeply held beliefs about Muslim boys and men are communicated to Canadians through sporting discourses.

Students’ Identity and Mental Well-Being Among Muslims and Christians in Pakistan

The identity, belongingness to the larger society as well as mental well-being of minorities in Pakistan may have suffered as a result of recent social and political attacks on Christians. The present study was aimed at finding and comparing various aspects of identity (i.e., personal, social, relational, and collective) and mental well-being among adolescents from the majority (Muslims) and minority (Christian) religious groups of Lahore district in Pakistan. The study hypothesized that adolescents of religious minorities would have a lower level of sense of aspects of identity than their dominant counterparts. The sample comprised of 414 male and female students (Muslim = 225, Christian =189) with an age range from 13 to 18years, drawn from two Muslim and two Christian schools. Data was collected using the Aspects of Identity Questionnaire (Cheek & Briggs, 2013), and Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (Tennant et al., 2007). Results indicated a significant difference in the level of awareness of aspects of identity as well as well-being between majority and minority adolescents. Furthermore, within the majority group, there was also a significant gender difference in social identity and mental well-being with Muslim boys scoring higher than Muslim girls on these variables. Implications of the study are discussed.

Review: Petition for a Manifesto for Rooting and Liberating Arab Sociology [Mishkat Mithaq Ta’sseel wa Tahrir ‘Ilm al Ijtima‘a al ‘Arabi], by Mahmoud Al Dhaouadi

Review: <i>Petition for a Manifesto for Rooting and Liberating Arab Sociology [Mishkat Mithaq Ta’sseel wa Tahrir ‘Ilm al Ijtima‘a al ‘Arabi]</i>, by Mahmoud Al Dhaouadi

In-Group Bias or Out-Group Reluctance? The Interplay of Gender and Religion in Creating Religious Friendship Segregation among Muslim Youth

Abstract Even in diverse schools that provide opportunities for interreligious friendships, Muslim youth disproportionally tend to be friends with Muslims rather than non-Muslims. Echoing broader debates about minorities’ self-segregation versus exclusion by majority group members, a key question is whether religious friendship segregation arises because of Muslims’ in-group bias or because of non-Muslims’ reluctance to befriend them. We suggest that the answer differs for Muslim boys and girls. Building on research on interreligious romantic relations and accounts of the lives of young Muslims and other ethno-religious minorities in Western societies, we propose that religious in-group bias is stronger for Muslim girls than for Muslim boys. Conversely, we expect non-Muslim youth to be more open to befriend Muslim girls than Muslim boys. Applying stochastic actor-oriented models of network dynamics to large-scale longitudinal data of friendship networks in German schools, we find that Muslim girls indeed have a strong in-group bias, whereas non-Muslim youth are not reluctant to be friends with them. Muslim boys, by contrast, have a much weaker in-group bias, but non-Muslim youth are less willing to be friends with them rather than with non-Muslims. A simulation analysis demonstrates that these gendered individual-level processes result in comparable aggregate patterns of friendship segregation among Muslim boys and girls. Religious friendship segregation thus arises because Muslim girls tend to self-segregate and non-Muslim youth are less willing to befriend Muslim boys although the latter are open to interreligious friendships. This gendered friendship-making behavior has implications for the larger question of minority social integration.

Wild and tame zones in times of disharmony: Muslim boys and belonging in a primary school in Melbourne, Australia

ABSTRACT This paper features stories about disharmony and social cohesion collected via interviews and focus groups conducted with teachers, school leaders, students, parents and the principal in a multicultural primary school located in a suburb on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia. This school is located in a low-SES, historically white and working class area that is now home to large communities of immigrants, many of whom are Muslims. These changes have caused considerable anxieties at this school and in the school community. This primary school faces significant challenges in times defined by social disharmony, war and violence, extremism and terrorism, and adversarial public politics. Some Muslims in these communities have been accused of not doing enough to fit in, sticking too steadfast to their values, religion and culture. We argue, following Giroux, that schools must embrace the challenging conversations that can occur when difficult problems are confronted.

Educated with Distinction

AbstractBeginning in the 1850s, the Ottoman Empire’s educational landscape expanded and diversified. During this era of imperial reforms, discourses around education increasingly focused on the importance of female education. This article uses census material from Tripoli in today’s Lebanon to explore the experiences of students in the wake of these shifts. It examines literacy rates across different social and religious groups and the extent to which educational decisions parents made were biased by gender and class. The analysis reveals that the rate of Muslim boys’ literacy was high even before new schools opened starting in the 1850s. As for the post-reform developments, it shows that although around a quarter of propertied families decided to send their sons and daughters to school, a considerable proportion of Muslim and Christian families privileged sons alone. Still, reforms allowed a number of groups in the generations between 1860 and 1910 to achieve higher rates of literacy, including Muslim and Christian girls as well as the children of artisans.

Disordered eating behaviors among Christian and Muslim adolescents in Ceuta, a multicultural town

Studies on disordered eating behaviors (DEB) in multicultural populations with multiple religious/cultural affiliations are needed in order to clarify the relationship between cultural background and DEB. Therefore, we compared the presence of DEB among Christian and Muslim adolescents who share their school environment, controlling for the effect of body mass index, demographic variables and lifestyle habits. A sample of 493 girls and boys (339 Christian, 138 Muslim) whose mean (±SD) age was 14.8 (±1.7) years completed self-reporting questionnaires and underwent measurements of anthropometric data. Religious/cultural affiliation was defined by self-identification. The dependent variable, DEB was assessed by means of the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI-2). Muslim girls and boys score higher than Christians on EDI-2 total scores, especially on the perfectionism subscale. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to determine the characteristics associated with DEB, which were detected in 24% of participants (19% of Christians and in 35% of Muslims). Among girls, DEB were directly associated with overweight or obesity, the presence of frequent quarrels with parents, academic failure and spending more than 3 h a day watching screen images. Among boys, DEB were directly associated with overweight or obesity and Muslim background; and inversely associated with age and socioeconomic status.

Future orientation links perceived parenting and academic achievement: Gender differences among Muslim adolescents in Israel

In light of findings showing that in non-western cultures parenting is not directly related to adolescents' academic achievement, this study examines a multiple-step model linking perceived parenting and academic achievement via self-empowerment and each of two future orientation domains: higher education and marriage and family. Participants were 882 college-bound 11th grade Muslim girls and boys (577 girls) in Israel. Structural equation modeling estimated the model, as well as equivalent models, twice: once for the higher education and once for marriage and family. Analysis shows that while the structure of the model has a satisfactory goodness of fit for girls and boys, the path weights indicate gender differences, and the models explained higher percentage of the academic achievement variance of girls than of boys. Discussion explains the indirect link between perceived parenting and academic achievement in terms of the educational distance between parents and their adolescent children compensated by positive parenting, and the gender differences in terms of the meaning self-empowerment and future orientation about both domains has for Muslim girls and boys in Israel.

Post-traumatic stress disorder among former Islamic State child soldiers in northern Iraq.

Former child soldiers are at high risk of developing mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, their comprehensive mental health has yet to be examined.AimsThis study looks at the prevalence of PTSD, depression and associated risk factors such as disturbed self-esteem among former child soldiers of the so-called 'Islamic State'. The psychological effect of traumatic events was assessed in 81 Yazidi children who had been child soldiers for the Islamic State in northern Iraq between 2014 and 2017 for at least 6 months. The children were between 8 and 14 years of age. Thirty-two Yazidi boys and 31 Muslim boys who were not child soldiers in Iraq served as control groups. A structured psychological interview and established psychometric questionnaires were used to assess traumatisation and mental disorders. The child soldiers showed a significantly higher prevalence of PTSD (48.3%), depressive disorders (45.6%), anxiety disorders (45.8%) and somatic disturbances (50.6%) than the boys who had not been child soldiers. Developmentally crucial self-esteem was significantly reduced in former child soldiers. No significant differences between the two control groups could be found. PTSD and other mental disorders are highly present among former child soldiers in northern Iraq. The study highlights the huge and as yet unmet need for psychological services among former child soldiers.Declaration of interestNone.

Factors Affecting Gender Disparity in Muslim Education in India

Muslims occupy the second largest share in India’s population after Hindus. Therefore, India’s overall economic growth and development are largely dependent on the progress of this community. Muslims, by and large, have remained backward in attaining education so far, and the pace of their educational development is quite slow. The situation is even worse for Muslim women. This gives rise to gender disparity in education and raises concerns over the formulation, implementation and monitoring of government policies and programmes directed towards the betterment of this community. This study aims to empirically evaluate the effect of some socio-economic and demographic variables; particularly household consumption expenditure as a proxy for household income, on current education attendance levels of Muslims using a sample of individuals aged 5–17 years from the National Sample Survey, 68th round Employment–Unemployment survey, 2011–2012. In addition, this article is also an attempt to examine the effect of these factors on the gender gap in education of Muslims. Results from the empirical analysis show that members of this community are less likely to attend any educational institution if they belong to the lower income status household and are more likely to attend if they belong to the upper income status household. In comparison to Muslim girls, Muslim boys are more likely to attend school if they belong to rich families. In contrast, in poor Muslim families, girls are more likely to attend school than boys. Several other socio-economic and demographic factors also affect current education participation of Muslim children. Besides other factors, if on the one hand, children’s growing age and number of children in the household increase gender gap, then knowledge of Internet operation and presence of a female household head help in reducing gender gap in current attendance level of Muslim children in India.

Identity construction and language use in a Singaporean Muslim youth camp

ABSTRACTThe paper examines how pre‐teen Muslim boys and girls from the same classroom and the same madrasah are faced with differing curricula when the time comes for their annual camp. The choice of activities and corresponding narratives within each camp foregrounds the processual nature of identity construction. This article undertakes a linguistic and semiotic analysis of discoursal narratives in the two camps, which take place a week apart, so as to uncover ideological frameworks in the construction of religious identities. A comparative survey of organizational, curriculum and linguistic practices then focuses on how boys and girls are socialized.

Being a “Good” Son and a “Good” Daughter: Voices of Muslim Immigrant Adolescents

In the last decade, a growing empirical work has focused on adaptation processes of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries who live in the West, particularly Muslim youth born and/or educated in Western countries. The current study explored how Muslim boys and girls immigrated from Morocco, Egypt and Pakistan negotiate their identity on the base of interiorized social and cultural in-group norms associated to the representation of a “good” son and a “good” daughter within the resettlement society. Participants were 45 Muslim immigrant adolescents (30 females, 15 males) coming from Morocco, Egypt and Pakistan, who were interviewed through an in-depth semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis carried out on the interview transcripts permitted to identify four themes and thirteen subthemes, revealing interesting differences based on participants’ gender and country of origin. The quality of being obedient and respectful of parents’ desires was a significant common topic among all participants, although it was differently articulated by girls and boys. For girls, norms and expectations were strictly modeled around staying at home and preserving heritage culture. For boys, a heavy mandate—that is, gaining educational success in order to become the breadwinner—weights on them. Implications of these gender-based challenges are discussed in relation to specific vulnerabilities experienced by young Muslims living in Western society.

Accounting for British Muslim’s educational attainment: gender differences and the impact of expectations

This study compares the educational attainment of Muslim and Christian White-British boys and girls at the following junctions: Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, GCSE, getting into universities and achieving a place at a Russell Group university. The study utilises the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England waves 1–6 with linked data from the National Pupil Database. The analysis shows that once we take previous school performance into account, Muslim students seem to be performing as well as the majority group, even in attending Russell group universities. Muslim girls seem to now be outperforming Muslim boys, especially in relation to their school performance. Furthermore, parental expectations and students’ own expectations play an important role in determining the attainment of students. The study concludes that the higher achievement of young Muslims may be strongly correlated with their own unusually high expectations of going to university; but a primary source of the latter is likely to be the parents’ unusually high expectations, the messages they receive and the discipline in place in relation to schoolwork at home and their relationship with their parents and their parents’ norms.

A Prospective Study of the Physiological and Neurobehavioral Effects of Ramadan Fasting in Preteen and Teenage Boys

BackgroundIntermittent fasting during the month of Ramadan, although not obligatory, is commonly practiced by Muslim children. ObjectiveOur aim was to describe the effects of Ramadan fasting on various physiological and neurobehavioral measures in preteen and teenaged boys. DesignWe conduced a prospective cohort study during Ramadan, observed from August 9 to September 11, 2010. ParticipantsEighteen healthy Muslim boys (mean age±standard deviation 12.6±1.5 years) were recruited and assessed before, during (1st and 4th weeks), and after Ramadan. Subjects were classified as preteens (aged 9 to 12 years) or teens (aged 13 to 15 years). InterventionOn each clinic visit, participants completed a match-to-sample test, a spatial planning and working memory task, and a working memory capacity test using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. Participants were also assessed for their sleep patterns, daily energy expenditure, and dietary intake. Body composition was determined using a dual-energy x-ray scan. Complete blood count, lipid profile analysis, and iron indices were conducted. Main outcome measuresWe measured morphologic, metabolic, and neurobehavioral parameters. Statistical analysesA linear mixed model was used to assess changes in outcome measures. Post hoc pairwise comparisons were performed as necessary with Bonferroni adjustment. ResultsWithin 1 week of fasting, there was a drop in body fat only in preteens (P=0.001). Reported fat (P=0.004) and protein intake (P=0.037) was higher during Ramadan, but energy expenditure did not change. By the end of Ramadan, there was a significant reduction in hemoglobin (mean±standard error −0.48±0.4 mmol/L) and serum iron (−25.7±31.8 μg/dL [−4.6±5.7 μmol/L]) levels. During week 4, total sleep duration decreased by 1.8 hours. At week 4, performance on the spatial planning and working memory task and working memory capacity test increased significantly (P=0.002), while match-to-sample test performance declined in preteens only (P=0.045). ConclusionsRamadan fasting was associated with significant changes in body composition, dietary intake, and sleep patterns. Reductions in attention and iron indices were observed in preteens only.

A Study of Academic Anxiety of Secondary School Students With Relation To Their Gender and Religion

The present study is based on Academic anxiety. The aim of the study is to find out the difference between religion and gender, regarding academic anxiety for the purpose of the study, 120 School children were chosen from different school at Kapadwanj town, Gujarat, for data collection in all 120 student, 60 being boys (30 Hindu +30 Muslim ) and 60 girls (30 Hindu + 30 Muslim ). Generally anxiety can be either a trait anxiety or a state anxiety. A trait anxiety is a stable characteristic or trait of the person. A state anxiety is one which is aroused by some temporary condition of the environment such as examination, accident, punishment, etc. Academic anxiety is a kind of state anxiety which relates to the impending danger from the environments of the academic institution including teacher, certain subjects like Mathematics, English, etc. I have used ‘Academic Anxiety Scale for children’ (AASC Scale) by Dr. A. k. Singh &amp; Dr. (km) A. Sen Gupta. The obtained data analyzed through Mann-Whitney ‘ U ‘ test. The result shows that there was no significant difference between the Academic anxiety of Muslim boys &amp; girls and Hindu girls &amp; Muslim girls. There is more Academic anxiety in Hindu girls then Hindu boys and more Academic anxiety in Muslim boys then Hindu boys.

Helping Muslim boys succeed: the case for history education

Recent research suggests that Muslim boys have become the ‘New Folk Devils’ of British education, who are characterised by resistance to formal education, especially at secondary level, and under‐achievement. Since the 1990s, British Muslim boys would appear to have become increasingly alienated from compulsory schooling, especially in the humanities subjects which lack obvious instrumental value.This mixed‐methods study of the performance of 295 secondary school British Muslim boys in their compulsory school history provides evidence which interrupts this narrative of the academic under‐achievement and educational dis‐engagement of Muslim boys, especially in the humanities subjects. When viewed through the prism of a laminated, non‐reductive model of educational success, this indicative sample of British Muslim boys could be considered to have had significant success at a traditional humanities subject such as history intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, instrumentally and civically.This paper therefore proposes that history can provide a vital meaning‐making tool to generate the success of Muslim boys in a variety of significant dimensions both in and out of school. It suggests how history can be more fully and effectively harnessed by teachers, parents and policy‐planners to encourage internal integration and external social engagement in British Muslim pupils.

In Defence of War:

<i>In Defence of War:</i>

The concept of the absent curriculum: the case of the Muslim contribution and the English National Curriculum for history

This paper introduces the concept of the absent curriculum on the premise that the study of curriculum has been prone to privileging curricular presence to the exclusion of curricular absence. In order to address this imbalance and to articulate a theory of absence in the curriculum, the paper applies ideas derived from the philosophy of critical realism—‘absence’ and ‘totality’—to curriculum theory to conceive of the absent curriculum. The paper outlines three components of the absent curriculum: the null curriculum at the level of national curricular policy, the unselected curriculum at the level of school curricular planning and the unenacted curriculum at the classroom level of teacher delivery. This conceptual framework is illustrated by a case example of how the absence of the history of Muslim contribution from the teaching of the National Curriculum for history in four English schools formed an absent curriculum which prompted some of the research sample of 295 British Muslim boys to disengage from their learning of history. The paper concludes that the absent curriculum is a hidden curriculum that suggests to groups whose histories are missing from the national curricula that they are relatively insignificant citizens in the community of the nation.

New Folk Devils: Muslim boys and education in England

New Folk Devils: Muslim boys and education in England