Muslim Identity Research Articles

Examining the Implications of Islamic Teacher Education and Professional Learning: Towards Professional Identity Renewal in Islamic Schools

Teachers in Islamic schools are often required to navigate complex identities. They balance personal and/or school-based religious obligations with contemporary secular-based commitments to meet organisational demands for institutional compliance. Behaviourally, the motivations and attitudes of teachers play a vital role in shaping a learning environment that fosters a sense of community and caters to the needs of students. However, recent studies on Islamic education suggest a real struggle in managing such complexities. Consequently, scholars have called for specialized programs to counter such issues, focusing on the need for schools to renew their commitment to promoting educational values, principles and practices that are rooted in the Islamic tradition. Several higher education institutions have responded to this call by establishing programs in Islamic studies and Islamic education. Nevertheless, there is limited knowledge of the organisational and behavioural significance of such programs on the professional identity of teachers. Using semi-structured interviews, this article presents findings from four teachers who had completed a postgraduate qualification in Islamic education at an Australian university. The six-phase thematic data analysis, informed by Muslim identity and an Islamic worldview, revealed that secular teacher education provided participants with ‘a license to teach’ but lacked in ‘nurturing a purpose for teaching’. The findings also revealed a distinct connection between Islamic teacher education, professional learning and professional identity, whereby Islamic-based pedagogies ‘enlightened and empowered’ teachers toward becoming ‘faith-centred’ in their professional practice. While the study was limited to four teachers, it contributes knowledge to the Islamic education, organizational and behavioural fields of inquiry in two ways, by underlining that (i) the professional identities of Muslim teachers are shaped by a knowledge-seeking mindset, and (ii) Islamic teacher education and professional learning create pathways towards the renewal of teachers’ professional identities in Islamic schools.

Persuaded by the Qur’an: Converting to Islam in Canada

Canadian Muslim converts/reverts, as the fastest growing convert population in Canada, are shaping the religious landscape and challenging assumptions about Canadian and Canadian Muslim identity. Conversion is a complex phenomenon that affects individuals in all aspects of life. Muslim converts change their beliefs, attitudes, habits, clothing, behaviours, and even their names in some cases – all aspects which Islam, as a comprehensive way of life (deen) touches. Changing their religion not only involves switching personal beliefs and practices, but it also means altering the community they grow in/belong to. Dealing with many transformations in their inner and outer worlds is challenging. Thus, it requires facilitating mechanisms in the Muslim community to reduce the burden on converts by providing channels to learn their new religion of Islam, get them connected with the new community, and walk with them through their journey. This article aids with understanding motivations of Canadian converts coming to Islam, to capture their everyday life experiences, to explore where they struggle most in their conversion, and to understand how Muslim organizations can contribute to combatting those challenges and helping them integrate in the community.

A qualitative exploration of Muslim American college students' experiences of discrimination and coping.

A majority of Muslim American college students have grown up exclusively within a post-9/11 climate of surveillance and discrimination. Recent events such as the Trump administration's "Muslim ban" and the Israel-Hamas War have led to additional spikes in Islamophobia and discrimination against Muslim Americans. Developmentally, college students are particularly susceptible to the impacts of discrimination because of the identity exploration that occurs during emerging adulthood. Yet, the effects of discrimination on Muslim American college students are understudied. This qualitative study sought to understand how 1.5- and second-generation immigrant-origin Muslim American college students (a) experience discrimination, (b) describe the emotional impacts of discrimination, and (c) cope with discrimination. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 Muslim American college students between the ages of 18 and 21 years (M = 19.85). Conventional content analysis yielded 14 themes and 9 subthemes. Themes consisted of pride in Muslim identity; complexity of visible markers of Muslim identity; stereotypes; microaggressions; multiple, intersecting forms of oppression; historical, ongoing sociocultural trauma; overt Islamophobia; fear, anxiety, and distrust; impact on identity; sadness and hopelessness about the future; intrapsychic forms of coping; relational forms of coping; shifting actions and behaviors; and generational differences in coping. Findings indicated that discrimination experienced by Muslim American college students is chronic, pervasive, and intersectional. Participants experienced discrimination at various stages in their development, across multiple contexts, and on account of multiple marginalized identities. Notably, participants' experiences of discrimination coexisted with a sense of pride in being Muslim. Implications for research and intervention are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Urbanization, relational space, and practicing Muslim ethnicity in Western China

ABSTRACT In recent decades, market reforms, inter-regional mobility, and urbanization have shaped Muslim groups’ social practices, simultaneously encouraging the development of Islamic places (and reinforcing Muslim identity), promoting intermingling with other ethnic groups (and promoting assimilation), and occasionally creating inter-ethnic class solidarity and mutual respect. By the mid-2010s, in western China’s Xining City, the resulting social fluidity stemming from these transformations was being constrained by both community social pressures and state security practices. Furthermore, Sinocentric urbanization discourse was influencing intra-group debates about what, and how, Muslim practices could belong in the city. This discourse affected mundane boundary-marking practices; its relative devaluation of ethnic urban spaces shaped what Muslims considered excessively ‘traditional’ or acceptably modern. Drawing from theories in urban geography, I argue that analyses of relational spaces that include mobility, urban redevelopment, and lived experiences are key to understanding how urban Muslims are adapting to contemporary PRC governance strategies.

‘We’re all like brothers’: religion’s role in Afghan Uzbek identity formation

ABSTRACT Studies on Muslim self-conception within Central Asia have flourished over the past twenty years in post-Soviet Central Asia as they did in the 1960s and 1970s within Afghanistan. This research provides qualitative data to compare studies on identity formation within Central Asia, particularly among Uzbeks. From 2018–2019, the author interviewed 20 Uzbek speakers and conducted participant observation in a community of Afghan Uzbeks in northern Afghanistan. The study sought to understand how Uzbek-speaking Sunni Afghans negotiate their identity, particularly with regard to the role of religion in that identity formation. This data was analysed using the grounded theory tools of coding, memo-writing and theory development. The study found that religion played a role in defining identity and ethnicity by reinforcing their membership in the collective identity of the nation of Afghanistan. It also indicated the importance of foreign association in formulating diverse expressions of Muslim identity.

The identity of religion always comes up: the war, the mass media and the reproduction of Muslim identity in the west

Islamophobia in the media occurs when media sources present hostile, inaccurate, and/or deceptive stories about Islam, Muslims, or Arabs. Islamophobia is the term used to describe strong antipathy or prejudice toward Muslims, intense hatred or fear of Islam, particularly as a political force, and the study of how and to what extent the media promotes There has been a lot of scholarly and political discourse on Islamophobia. The discourse around Islamophobia in the media often focuses on the rhetorical strategies utilized by individual media outlets or by the mass media of a given nation or region, such the US or Europe. A few instances of this are when Islam is portrayed in a poor light relative to other religions, when Muslims are linked to terrorism, when Muslims and their followers are portrayed as aggressive or primitive, and when Muslim viewpoints are excluded from discussions on politics and academia, among other subjects. On the other hand, reactions to talks about Islamophobia in the media frequently cast doubt on what actually qualifies as Islamophobia, how frequently, how severe, and how effective Islamophobic language is, as well as the political reasons for such talks. This study aims to determine whether or not there was obvious inherent bias by examining the tone, structure, and topics offered by the print media prior to a terrorist event. This study examines how the world press has connected Islam to terrorism and emphasizes how subliminal print messages might contribute to Muslim racial profiling and the spread of Islamophobia. The editorials of six prominent international newspapers between 2014 and 2017 provided the data for this study, which created strata of ten significant worldwide terrorism incidents at random. The investigator examined editorials for a month following the event. The researcher’s results and conclusions are obtained by statistical interpretation following data analysis using event methodology and content analysis.

Flying While Muslim and Driving While Black: examining the differences in racialized surveillance and policing for African American Muslims

ABSTRACT The term ‘Driving While Black’ encapsulates the experiences of African American men and women with racial profiling while driving. ‘Flying While Muslim’ captures what it is like to encounter racialized surveillance in airports because of one’s Muslim identity. In this article, we examine how being Black and Muslim guides the types of racialized policing and surveillance that men and women encounter. The interviews reveal how race, ethnicity and gender inform the types of policing and surveillance individuals experience. We also highlight the connections between the history of policing and surveillance of African Americans to current policing in the War on Terror, which have influenced the War on Drugs.

Salafism and dialectics of Muslim identity in Nigeria and the Sahel

ABSTRACT Using examples from West Africa, this paper argues that Salafism has become modular. In interrelated trends, some Salafis have revised their postures towards other Muslims, while some non-Salafis selectively adopt elements of Salafism; both trends lead to forms of ‘post-Salafism’. The paper investigates three facets of these nascent ‘post-Salafi’ trends. First, Salafis have championed the hadith report as the main currency of evidence-giving in religious debate, but have lost ‘market share’ in the interpretation of hadith. Second, intellectuals trained in comparative jurisprudence can stake out an appealing middle ground between Salafism and traditionalism. Third, Salafis’ need for coalition partners in politics and society can blur the boundaries of Salafism, even to the point that some Salafis compromise on anti-Sufism, a core element of Salafism. Discussing Nigeria, Mauritania, and Mali, the paper highlights how local contextual factors have affected the construction of Muslim identity since the 1990s. These factors include democratic openings, exhaustion with Sufi-Salafi polemics, the appeal of Shi‘ism, and mass protests with religious colourations.

Exploring the harmony between contemporary values and Islamic identity through the lens of the Gülen movement's teachings

There is a growing need for new Muslim identities that reflect global realities. Fethullah Gülen, a notable Turkish-Muslim cleric, is influential and persuasive. Gülen emphasizes spirituality, religious pluralism, discussion, and education to promote peaceful coexistence and integrate faith and reason in Western democracies. This study examines how Gülen's ideas and the global volunteer organization he created promote Muslim-non-Muslim harmony. We use text linguistics' seven principles—cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situation, and intertextuality—to assess Gülen's teachings and movement. In the social sciences, we also use textual language norms as a fresh theoretical and methodological approach to studying social movements and events. This study's focus on movement-text relationships and cognitive processes in information creation, reproduction, and dissemination makes it distinctive. This study investigates these issues in Muslim countries, multicultural cultures, and liberal democracies. This research is useful because it explains the Gülen movement's domestic and worldwide advancements. This article figuratively depicts Fethullah Gülen as the author, his movement as the text, and humanity as the readers.

From superhero to Super Sikh: (re)constructing Sikh identity in Super Sikh comics

ABSTRACT Superhero comics established their distinctive literary conventions and narrative patterns which have been further widely adapted to create new superhero characters in different cultural contexts. Although superhero comic books have been extensively read across cultures, the Sikh community has recently discovered their pedagogical potential in disseminating the Sikh theological values and cultural ethos to Sikh children, and familiarising the western public with Sikh history and traditions. This paper analyses how superhero traditions are appropriated to create a Khalsa template of the Sikh superhero, Super Sikh, and the distinctiveness of Khalsa Sikh identity is highlighted and differentiated from the Muslim identity to address the issue of ‘mistaken identity’ hate crimes in the aftermath of 9/11.

Idealized Past, Exclusivist Present: Right-wing Appropriation of the Decolonial Rhetoric in Malaysia

ABSTRACT Scholars have often assumed that a decolonial agenda would empower emancipatory and anti-racist movements. Nevertheless, there is also increasing recognition by scholars that the language of decolonization has been co-opted to support right-wing ideologies and majoritarian agendas, most prominently in India and Turkey. Similarly, in Malaysia, right-wing actors use decolonial rhetoric to criticize ethnic, religious, gender, and sexual minorities and silence their demands for equal rights. These actors have justified their intolerance by labelling any perceived threats to heteronormative Malay Muslim identity as examples of “Western imperialism” or “Chinese colonialism.” This article illustrates how decolonial vocabulary has been transformed into Sinophobia and homophobia by a right-wing Islamist group in Malaysia. It shows how revisionist nativist historiography, racism, and conspiracy theories can be integrated with moralistic calls for decolonization. Tracing developments over the past decade, the paper demonstrates how persistent dissemination, intellectual laundering, and innovative marketing strategies have helped mainstream a nativist Islamist decolonial agenda in Malaysia.

Muslim women’s identity in Orhan Pamuk’s Snow

ABSTRACT This paper explores hijab as a political discourse and discusses women’s character through a postmodern relationship with Orhan Pamuk’s Snow. In Snow, Pamuk presents Turkish Muslim women characters’ struggle during secular politics and portrays a struggle for their identity with and without hijab. A textual analysis of Pamuk’s Snow applies interdisciplinary approaches to examine Turkish women’s identity, their struggle for hijab, and the failure of secularism. To understand women’s role in politics, scholars like Khamis (2021), Axiarlis (2014), and others are prominent figures to theorize ideas of postmodernity (Muslim women’s alienation, conflict with self vs. other, a perspective of Muslims from east vs. west and Muslim identity with hijab vs. post/modern identity without hijab) and secularism (without hijab) in Muslim women’s context. To conclude, Muslim women’s self-identification and Pamuk’s writing influences under the East, and West ideas create a critical discussion, and questions about the postmodern idea of Muslim women. The hijab is closely concerned with gender targets, and the novel portrays women’s resistance in society. This burning issue catches our attention towards the women’s serious issue of suicide because of hijab politics.

Islam Nusantara vs Progressive Islam: Dynamics and Transformation in the Modern Context of Indonesia

This journal explores the comparative dynamics and transformative processes of Islam Nusantara and Progressive Islam within the modern Indonesian context. Islam Nusantara, rooted in local traditions and cultural syncretism, emphasizes moderation, tolerance, and integration with indigenous practices. In contrast, Progressive Islam focuses on rationalism, reform, and socio-political activism, drawing from contemporary interpretations of Islamic teachings. This study examines the historical evolution, theological foundations, and socio-political implications of both movements, highlighting their respective responses to global challenges and local contexts. By analyzing primary sources, field studies, and interviews with key figures, this research elucidates the complexities and intersections between these two paradigms. The findings reveal how Islam Nusantara and Progressive Islam shape Indonesian Muslim identity, influence public discourse, and contribute to the broader narrative of Islamic thought in the 21st century. This study provides a nuanced understanding of the ongoing negotiation between tradition and modernity in Indonesian Islam, offering insights into the future trajectories of these influential movements.

The Reception of Hamka's Tafsir Al-Azhar within Social Religious Issues in the Malay World

This study explores the reception and impact of Hamka's Tafsir Al-Azhar across the Malay world, particularly in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, and Singapore. Tafsir Al-Azhar, written by the renowned Malay scholar Hamka, is a significant work of Qur'anic exegesis that has influenced Islamic thought in Southeast Asia. By employing a qualitative research method, specifically a case study with phenomenological analysis, this research investigates how Tafsir Al-Azhar has been received, interpreted, and utilized by various Muslim communities in these regions. The study examines the historical context in which Hamka's work was produced, focusing on its dissemination and its pivotal role in addressing socio-religious issues from the mid-20th century to the present day. By applying reception theory, the analysis highlights the dynamic interaction between the text and its readers, revealing how interpretations of Tafsir Al-Azhar have evolved in response to shifting social, political, and cultural landscapes. The research also explores the influence of external religious streams, modernity, and globalization on the Malay Muslim identity, and how these factors have shaped the adaptation and reception of traditional tafsir practices. The findings suggest that while Tafsir Al-Azhar has become a central reference in the religious life of Malay Muslims, its reception varies significantly across different countries. These variations are influenced by local cultural, religious, and political contexts, as well as by Hamka's personal interactions with these communities. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of Qur'anic interpretation in Southeast Asia, emphasizing the importance of contextualizing tafsir to address the diverse needs and challenges of Muslim communities in the region.

Modesty in business, bold in fashion: entrepreneurial experiences of U.S. Muslim women in niche fashion markets

Muslim modest fashion is experiencing unprecedented growth in the fashion industry, driven by young Muslim women consumers worldwide expressing interest in this market segment. Yet, few scholars have examined women entrepreneurs who created modest Islamic fashion brands and their experiences launching and sustaining their businesses, particularly how their intersectional identities inform their business practices and outcomes. Therefore, we asked, (1) Why and how did Muslim women entrepreneurs start their modest fashion brands? (2) What are their experiences starting and sustaining their modest fashion brands; and (3) How do agency, intersectionality, and oppression intersect with these women’s experiences? To understand the lived experiences of these entrepreneurs, we conducted oral histories with three Muslim women entrepreneurs. Following thematic analysis using open, axial, and selective coding, we identified numerous themes that help explain their entrepreneurial experiences. Overall, the women started their businesses to create the much-needed space for Muslim women in the fashion system as modest fashion was largely non-existent. The women started with a few products and largely one target market in mind, yet expanded to other religions that embody modesty values. In sustaining their businesses, the owners were highly controlling and involved in every aspect of their business. They expressed starting and sustaining their business was difficult due to their lack of experience, the time intensity of running their business, and difficulty in finding funding. Additionally, they had added layers of White supremacy in these experiences as women of color business owners. Yet, they expressed numerous successful strategies including centering the nuanced Muslim woman identity in product design and marketing. Their consumers expressed much ambivalence in that they loved and criticized the brands for various reasons. The entrepreneurs certainly focused their business on Muslim identities, but also had heightened awareness and attention to environmental justice given the state of the fashion system and its negative contributions to the environment. Overall, through this research, we demonstrate how these entrepreneurs navigate the complexities of starting and sustaining their niche businesses amidst the oppressive cultural environment for American Muslim women in a post-9/11 context within a capitalist framework. Individuals looking to develop businesses catering to marginalized communities can utilize our findings to educate themselves on oppressive environments they may encounter in the future and navigate the tightrope of criticism and love from marginalized consumers looking to buy their products.

The Influence of Awareness about Halal and Toyyib Food on Interest Consuming Korean Food Among Adolescent and Adult

The selection of halal and thoyyib foods is an obligation and a part of Muslim identity. The influence of foreign culture like the Korean Wave has impacted people's interest in Korean foods. Unfortunately, not all Korean foods are made with halal and thoyyib ingredients suitable for consumption by Muslims. The aim of this research is to understand how awareness of consuming halal and thoyyib foods affects the desire to purchase Korean cuisine among teenagers and adults. This quantitative study was conducted in East Java, focusing on 189 participants aged 12-30, both male and female, who are Muslims. Data was collected through Google Form questionnaires and analyzed using multiple linear regression. The results showed a positive significant influence of halal and thoyyib awareness on the interest in consuming Korean cuisine, with a regression coefficient significance value of 0.000 < 0.05. In conclusion, it was found that halal and thoyyib foods have a significant impact both individually and collectively on the interest in consuming Korean foods.

Constructing Muslim womanhood in Indonesia: Hijab and the governmentality of religious organizations

This study investigated the ways in which two religious organizations in Indonesia govern female bodies; specifically focusing on the construction of ideal Muslim womanhood through hijab practice. This mixed-method study combines partial least squares path modelling (PLS-path modelling), ethnographic research during fieldwork, and content analysis of social media accounts. The quantitative analysis revealed that among members of Muslimat, involvement with the religious organization and subjective norms exerted a stronger influence on sharia compliance regarding hijab practices than among members of ‘Aisyiyah. Content analysis revealed that Muslimat prefers unified and monotonous hijab styles, while ‘Aisyiyah permits more colours and patterns. While both organizations tend to avoid presenting female sexualities, ‘Aisyiyah favours long and wide hijab, thus more strongly regulating the presentation of female sexualities. This research reveals the dynamics of religious organizations’ governing hegemony, highlighting the increasing influence of religion in the construction of ideal Muslim womanhood in Indonesian 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.

A Kashmiri Woman Stuck in Crossfire: Exploring the Impact of Militarisation on Everyday Lives in Farah Bashir’s Rumours of Spring

Political conflict has plagued Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region of Hindu-majority India, ever since the partition. The crisis worsened by the end of the 1980s and has continued to disrupt peace in the valley to date. The conflict arguably entered a new phase as the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was elected to power in 2014, which also joined the ruling coalition of the Jammu and Kashmir state in 2015 for the first time. Over this period, Kashmir’s resistance evolved into subtler forms, including cultural expressions like memoirs. Published in 2021, Farah Bashir’s debut work, Rumours of Spring, is a deeply personal yet undeniably political exploration of the crisis in Kashmir from its aggravated phase in the beginning of the 1990s. This paper argues that the nuanced depiction of the crisis in the memoir demands an intersectional reading of the traumatising impact of militarisation and militarism on Kashmir’s everyday life, especially given the subject position of the narrator as a Muslim woman. The works on militarisation by Jacklyn Cock, as employed by Samreen Mushtaq to analyse the situation in Kashmir, provide theoretical insights for this reading. Set in Kashmir’s identitarian conflict, the Muslim identity is central to the narrative. We argue that in Bashir’s memoir, religion finds a complex representation, with the Qur’an and Kashmiri folklore serving as respites in times of crisis, even as the fundamentalist factions contribute to their oppressive reality. Bashir’s work openly engages with the experience of being a Muslim in Hindu India. The paper also attempts to place the work in a larger corpus of life-writing by women in conflict zones, comparing the work with Sharon and My Mother-in-Law: Ramallah Diaries (2003), a Palestinian memoir by Suad Amiry.

Advancing Muslim Modest Fashion Clothing

The rise of digital marketing involves leveraging fashion influencers, like bloggers and celebrities, to expand brand reach and drive sales, more notably in the post-pandemic era. In the realm of modest fashion, young female Muslim influencers have played a significant role, tapping into a vast market and positively impacting the global economy. Therefore, this study attempts to explore the impact of these influencers on female modest fashion consumers' decisions associated with their visible Muslim identity and to understand the fashion-faith landscape through the challenges for the influencers. Driven by the theory of two-step communication flow among fashion opinion leaders and fashion consumers, this study adopted a qualitative approach and a research design underlying hermeneutic phenomenology by using semi-structured interviews with modest fashion consumers and secondary source information about influencers. The findings offer valuable insights for consumers, industry stakeholders, and policymakers to support the modest fashion trend and promote a dignified Muslim identity.