Muslim Immigrants Research Articles

An Outdoor Walking Program for Immigrant Muslim Older Adults: A Community-Based Participatory Intervention.

To explore Muslim immigrant older adults' experiences of a modified community-based outdoor walking program and identify factors that facilitate or hinder program acceptance and participation. An exploratory qualitative description single-group pilot study was designed and implemented in three phases: (1) pre-intervention focus group interviews; (2) intervention implementation with tracking of physical activity levels using personal activity monitors; and (3) postintervention individual interviews. Participants were recruited using a convenience sampling strategy in a mosque in Edmonton, Canada, in June 2019. After focus group discussions with participants, walking sessions were conducted for 10 weeks in a local accessible park with required amenities such as benches and restrooms. A fitness instructor delivered the weekly program that was followed by individual semistructured interviews to explore participants' satisfaction and program acceptance. Content analysis was used for qualitative data and sociodemographic, health and physical activity level (via step counts) data was documented for all participants. Thirteen participants with a mean age of 66.9 years completed the program. The majority of participants led a sedentary lifestyle. Participants identified three motivators that increased program satisfaction, which were socialising with peers, having a fitness instructor, and using Fitbit activity trackers. Difficulties with transportation and lack of appropriate educational components were areas for improvement that could enhance acceptability of the program. This study suggests that early incorporation of older immigrants' preferences increases acceptance of physical activity programs. Nurses' engaging in healthy lifestyle support for older immigrants can identify the influences on positive uptake of physical activity programs in this population. Immigrant Muslim older adults lack access to evidence-based physical activity programming that meets their cultural and religious preferences. This study provides some insights into ways to engage this population in similar programs. Community-dwelling older adults who participated in this study completed focus groups and interviews and engaged in the 10-week pilot intervention. Their input informed the modifications to the intervention.

Empowering Immigrant Muslim Women: Community-Based Approaches to Diabetes Prevention and Management

Diabetes poses a significant global health challenge, particularly among vulnerable populations such as immigrant Muslim women from developing countries. This narrative review synthesizes evidence on community-based diabetes prevention and management interventions tailored specifically for this demographic, which faces unique challenges related to religious practices and immigrant status. Traditional diabetes interventions often overlook the needs of these women, particularly concerning dietary restrictions and religious norms affecting physical activity. The review highlights programs that integrate religious teachings and contexts, suggesting potential improvements in health outcomes when religiously adapted strategies are employed. Key themes identified include peer support, religiously adapted nutrition and physical activity, and the critical roles of community health workers and religious leaders in fostering health education. Barriers to participation, such as modesty concerns and language barriers, are also discussed, emphasizing the necessity for sensitive approaches. Recommendations for future programs include engaging community resources early, developing gender-specific physical activity sessions, and training lay health workers. This review calls for enhanced research and comprehensive interventions that respect and incorporate the religious sensitivities of immigrant Muslim women to effectively address their diabetes prevention and management needs.

Cultural Memory and Obstacles Challenging Digital Activist Muslims as Symbolic Violence

Abstract Over the past two decades, Islamic movements and activism in the USA have progressed. The weak part of the explanation models for Islamic activism is an inclusive description of obstacles in the discursive field. These obstacles are essentially sources of symbolic violence in discourse. There is also a debate regarding the discursive representation of Muslims. Native and immigrant Muslims in the USA have struggled against the dominance of external discourses. Therefore, this study examines the essential boundaries and obstacles of the discursive field that activist Muslims (digital activists particularly) encounter when constructing discourses in the USA. In this study, I used the current activism findings to investigate the discursive field’s fundamental boundaries and obstacles. The research proves that barriers such as stigmatization, racialization, nativism, security paradigm, gender, marginalization, and discrimination form the main basis of symbolic violence.

Opportunities for the integration of muslim immigrants in European Union countries

The presence of Muslim immigrants in European Union countries has become an undeniable reality, as these immigrants have become an integral part of the demographic composition of EU societies. The strength of these immigrant communities has increased as a result of the intensification of family reunification policies, which have contributed to reshaping and expanding minorities within the European space. Consequently, questions, concerns, and doubts have arisen about the integration of these immigrants into most national communities. These apprehensions are primarily based on the legal mechanisms required to integrate these minorities into the nation-state, which is founded on citizenship rights in Europe, and on the practical measures that guarantee their integration in an appropriate form and content. On this basis, the adopted integration policies that attempt to reposition Muslims in Europe at the economic, social, and, to some extent, cultural levels raise many concerns about their ability to integrate these Muslim immigrants and about the possible opportunities for their proper integration in light of their cultural, religious, and social specificities. Through this paper, researchers attempt to examine the opportunities for these Muslim immigrants to integrate, considering the legal complexities and social problems they face, which hinder their complete integration into these societies.

Critical Analysis of Hybridity and Multiculturalism in the Short Story “My Son the Fanatic” by Hanif Qureshi

In his presented textual writings, all these approaches, i.e, multiculturalism, hybridity, cultural clashes, identity crisis, and fundamentalism, are equally measured by Hanif Qureishi beautifully. The main focus of this research is achieved using questionnaires and a critical analysis approach. Key results are extracted from the critical analysis of the text of short story My Son the Fanatic (1994) on account of religious perspectives and fundamentalism. It is observed that second-generation of immigrant families are less in touch with their primary origin as their religious identity for Muslim immigrants who have a residence in British for a long time; respectively, in this present research short story My Son The Fanatic; the case seems in an opposite direction because the represented character Ali who is counts as a second generation young man in immigrants family of Pervaiz , shows strong attachment to his religion after they realize the true impact of his origin upon their real life, therefore, he is firmly diverted to his religion and follow the actual pattern of Islam and becomes a fundamentalist figure of his time, opposite to his father. This shows nature can never change. That’s why he questioned his father in the final period: “Who is fanatic now?”

Reimagining Ummah: The Role of Third-Generation Immigrant Women in the Transformation of Turkish Islam in Europe

For decades, the traditional precepts of “Turkish Islam” have defined the community structure for Turkish immigrants in The Netherlands. Today, spiritualism rather than Islamic morality is emerging as the more compelling religious practice among young people, especially among women who are looking to break out of their culturally enclosed communities. This study uses the terms “enclosure” and “opening up” as metaphors for immigrant participation in Dutch society and suggests that religious Muslim women immigrants are both the founders and dismantlers of the two metaphors. Through their own narratives, women are shown to challenge and resolve social compartmentalization, and the role of cultural transmission through “Ummahtism” (the global Islamic community) is detailed as it is reinterpreted in Europe by Dutch–Turkish women. The findings of this paper are based on field research conducted in The Netherlands between September 2020 and April 2022.

Differentiated secularism: discourse shaping of immigrants from different religious backgrounds in the French media

This paper examines the mechanisms of differentiated discursive disciplining for immigrants of different religious backgrounds in the French media. Based on a sample of 120 articles on immigration in the French mainstream media, textual analyses and comparisons were conducted. Results show that influenced by religious factors, the French media use secularism as a tool to portray completely different images of immigrants through different discursive logics. Muslim immigrants present a paradoxically biased negative image in the French media discourse as a collection of invaders and the disciplined. In contrast, the media image of Ukrainian immigrants of Orthodox Christian background is positive on the whole, with a certain degree of deliberateness in the details of its construction. The difference in the symbolic characterization between Catholicism and Islam enables the exclusionary media discourse against Muslim immigrants. The paper also discusses French media discourse flaws and policy dilemmas. The logic of French media discourse is paradoxical in its inability to maintain an intact secularist identification and to effectively influence political issues to the detriment of promoting immigrant integration.

Stranger – Other – Muslim. On the Integration of Muslim Minorities in Europe (from an Anthropological and Cultural Perspective)

The article aims to characterize the sources of conflicts and social tensions related to the presence of the Muslim minority in Europe. To achieve this goal, I intend to utilize a transdisciplinary strategy that will enable the comparison of research results emerging from political science and sociological studies, as well as cultural studies and anthropology. This approach allows for the formulation of new diagnoses. On the one hand, it makes it possible to describe the main integration strategies regarding the Muslim minority in Europe and shows their insufficiency and ineffectiveness. On the other hand, it reminds us that migration and ethnic issues are rooted in theoretical reflection, preceding the phenomena analyzed in empirical research. It also draws attention to hidden mechanisms that determine the tendency to ethnic isolation and describes cultural processes that may contribute to remodeling the relationship between Muslim immigrants and their social environment.

THE MUSLIM DIASPORA’S NATIONALISM AND IDENTITY IN KAMILA SHAMSIE’S HOME FIRE

The paper deals with Kamila Shamsie’s novel Home Fire to explore the profound social and psychological aspects and identity conflicts Muslim immigrants face in the West, especially in Britain. The importance of this paper is to express the conflict that the Muslim expatriate experiences in his relationship with the West and explore the reasons that affect their tolerance and coexistence. The paper’s problem manifests in exploring significant facets of human interactions, including tolerance, the increasing migrations from Islamic nations to non-Muslim countries, and the challenges arising from identity, religion, and race, which expose migrants to significant perils. The Method uses a social theoretical framework that intersects with the psychological approach. It investigates how both the original and new environments affect character development and individuals' psychological, developmental, and cognitive dimensions in the Muslim Diaspora. It aims to understand the reasons behind involvement in terrorist organizations and also examines the citizenship rights of Muslim Diaspora members. Finally, the paper concludes by presenting the most prominent results, which collectively illustrate that the aggressive style of fiction has influenced the presence of paranoia in literary criticism, leading to an exaggeration of the crimes of others and justification of the self. This is not conducive to objective and neutral analysis, so adopting a more moderate and neutral approach is recommended to allow for open discussion and acceptance of differing viewpoints. This approach should address questions of identity and national belonging.

Religion, Geography, and Risky Sexual Behaviors Among International Immigrants Living in China: Cross-Sectional Study.

Behavioral differences exist between countries, regions, and religions. With rapid development in recent decades, an increasing number of international immigrants from different regions with different religions have settled in China. The degrees to which sexual behaviors-particularly risky sexual behaviors-differ by religion and geographical areas are not known. We aim to estimate the associations of religion and geographical areas with sexual behaviors of international immigrants and provide evidence for promoting the sexual health of international immigrants. A cross-sectional study was conducted via the internet with a snowball sampling method among international immigrants in China. In our study, risky sexual behaviors included having multiple sexual partners and engaging in unprotected sex. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the basic characteristics of international immigrants as well as their sexual behaviors, religious affiliations, and geographical regions of origin. Multivariate binary logistic regression analyses with multiplicative and additive interactions were used to identify aspects of religion and geography that were associated with risky sexual behaviors among international immigrants. A total of 1433 international immigrants were included in the study. South Americans and nonreligious immigrants were more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors, and Asian and Buddhist immigrants were less likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors. The majority of the Muslims had sexually transmitted infection and HIV testing experiences; however, Muslims had a low willingness to do these tests in the future. The multivariate analysis showed that Muslim (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 0.453, 95% CI 0.228-0.897), Hindu (AOR 0.280, 95% CI 0.082-0.961), and Buddhist (AOR 0.097, 95% CI 0.012-0.811) immigrants were less likely to report engaging in unprotected sexual behaviors. Buddhist immigrants (AOR 0.292, 95% CI 0.086-0.990) were also less likely to have multiple sexual partners. With regard to geography, compared to Asians, South Americans (AOR 2.642, 95% CI 1.034-6.755), Europeans (AOR 2.310, 95% CI 1.022-5.221), and North Africans (AOR 3.524, 95% CI 1.104-11.248) had a higher probability of having multiple sexual partners. The rates of risky sexual behaviors among international immigrants living in China differed depending on their religions and geographical areas of origin. South Americans and nonreligious immigrants were more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors. It is necessary to promote measures, including HIV self-testing, pre-exposure prophylaxis implementation, and targeted sexual health education, among international immigrants in China.

Contemporary Legal Pluralism, the Modern Metropole, and Immigrant Integration: Negotiating the Law and Legal Institutions in Immigrant Contexts

Social actors’ ability to navigate multiple—and at times contradictory—institutions is essential to the well-being of contemporary diverse societies. For immigrants, the process and outcome of this negotiation shape the trajectories of their integration. Through in-depth interviews, participant observations, and the analysis of written and online materials, this paper studies Muslim immigrants’ experiences of, responses to, and negotiations with the coexistence of American and Islamic laws in the U.S. The data show that legal pluralism (LP) in the modern Metropole has given way to new and novel understandings and practices of LP: the “right to the law” and the “cosmopolitization of the legal field.” Also, whether and how Muslim immigrants negotiate American and Islamic laws is deeply rooted in and critically engaged with the prevailing discussions of equality, pluralism, inclusion, and citizenship. The findings of the study demonstrate that the American Muslim community has developed multiple creative responses to the challenges of LP, and these responses are constantly evolving and readapting through redefinition of acceptable practices, reordering of authoritative voices within the community, creative legal interpretations, and hybridization of the coexisting laws. Thus, the idiosyncrasies of LP in the modern Metropole have created simultaneous drives for adjustment and preservation.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy and Muslim Radicalization: Cases of France and the United States

This paper investigates the relationship between radicalization and self-fulfilling prophecy, focusing on the Western contexts with case studies from France and the United States. In France, historical marginalization and "symbolic ghettoization" of Muslim immigrants created an "in-group" versus "out-group" dynamic, intensified by political actions and media portrayals, leading to alienation and radicalization among young Muslim men. Similarly, in the United States, conservative media narratives post-9/11 have portrayed Muslims as threats, influencing public opinion and policy decisions, and setting the stage for potential future radicalization. The paper emphasizes the formation of these restrictive identities pushes marginalized individuals towards radicalism, underscoring the need to reject prejudices for effective radicalization mitigation. It warns of the dangers of symbolic segregation, highlighting the importance of understanding and addressing self-fulfilling prophecies in political and media discourse to combat radicalization in contemporary societies.

Upholding social hierarchies: Social dominance orientation moderates the link between (intergroup) conspiracy exposure and violent extremism

Across two experimental studies, we explored whether exposure to intergroup conspiracy theories can increase violent reactions towards targeted groups. We also examined how ideological attitudes may moderate the effect. In Study 1 ( N = 160, preregistered), we found that exposure to immigrant conspiracy theories (vs. control) increased the willingness to use violence for those who reported higher social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). Study 2 ( N = 211, preregistered) sought to extend these results by focusing on a specific target: Muslim immigrants. Exposure to Muslim immigrant conspiracy theories (vs. control) increased motivation and willingness to use violence for those with higher SDO (but not RWA). These findings showcase how exposure to intergroup conspiracy theories and violent reactions are conditional on specific ideological attitudes. Thus, when considering interventions, we argue that it is crucial to consider the role of ideological worldviews when seeking to combat conspiracy-inspired violence.

Post-9/11 American Society and the Identity Negotiation of Muslim Characters in Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced (2012)

This article studies the Negotiation of Muslim Identity in Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced (2012) that Muslim characters practice after the 9/11 attacks in the USA. The paper, moreover, evaluates the Muslim characters encountering the backlash, discrimination, harassment, othering, religious profiling, media propaganda, and alienation despite their complete integration and assimilation into the hostland identity. To explore how the Muslim Immigrant characters, as members of the minority out-group(MO), adopt the strategies of identity negotiation and construct the reactive Muslim identity in the selected play in the post-9/11 American context, The Social Identity Theory by Tajfel and Turner (2004) is used as the theoretical model through the textual analysis and Close Reading Method. The paper, furthermore, aims to study the Muslim characters struggling with the identity crisis and the derogatory treatment from the majority in-group Americans (MI). It also adds to research on the selected play the comprehensive understanding to the readers about the identity negotiations and Muslim identity construct after the 9/11 attacks in America.

DEGRADASI SERAPAN AKSARA ARAB DAN MELEMAHNYA PENGARUH ISLAM: ANALISIS HISTORIS TERHADAP AKSARA ALJAMIADO, XIAOJING, DAN JAWI

The Aljamiado, Xiaojing, and Jawi scripts are a manifestation of the acculturation of Arabic Islamic culture with the culture of various community groups spread across various parts of the world. Acculturation is created through social interactions involving the carriers and disseminators of Islam. The script adopted from Arabic grew along with the development of Islamic civilization, and weakened as Islamic civilization declined. There have not been many studies on historical analysis and social construction by making comparisons between languages ??that adopt the Arabic script. Most studies only focus on one character through various approaches. This article aims to discuss the degradation of Arabic script absorption in Chinese, Spanish and Malay and reveal the essence behind its connection to the weakening influence of Islam. This research uses a qualitative approach with the library research method. Primary data sources include books and journals of previous research and other relevant sources. The results of this research show that the degradation of the absorption of Arabic script in the form of Aljamiado, Xiaojing, and Jawi is directly proportional to the weakening of Islamic influence. Meanwhile, its emergence was initiated by immigrant Muslims, driven by different conditions. Aljamiado and Xiaojing were born as a result of weakening Islamic hegemony, while Jawi was born because Islamic influence was getting stronger

Finding the Moral High Ground

Immigration and border protection have consistently stood at the forefront of issues that divide Australians ideologically. The scholarly literature in this regard documents the role of conservative right-wing media in the formulation of anti-immigration rhetoric, particularly in relation to Muslim immigrants. This research builds on this literature, further exploring the role of ideology in shaping public perceptions. This study examines how an alternative news outlet – The Unshackled – reported on Islamic issues in 2019, the year prior to the COVID pandemic. While there is significant literature on media representations of Islam and Muslims, few studies have explored the relationship between alternative news outlets’ use of ‘free speech’ to spread anti-Islam and anti-Muslim rhetoric and Muslim immigration to Australia. By examining the coverage of Islam by The Unshackled, this article posits that, through the frame of free speech, the outlet gave voice and authority to unreliable commentators with anti-Islam, nativist views. This led to dissemination of information that lacked credibility and factual accuracy, reinforcing an image of Islam that contributes to negative sentiments regarding the religion and its followers, and further straining relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in Australia.

Analysing ‘Jihad’ Rhetoric in the Australian Context

This paper focuses on how jihad – a term synonymous with ‘struggle’ in Islam – has been associated with and used in entirely different meanings in Australian newspapers. Orientalism permeates Australian newspapers even today and different media outlets tend to follow an agenda when presenting news. The media is a powerful tool and has the capacity to influence people’s perceptions and outlook towards any phenomenon. Australian newspapers’ representation of jihad in a particular context solidifies its meaning as a ‘holy war’ whereas the Qur’ān has an entirely different meaning for this concept. Jihad is used in articles that focus on terrorist activities carried out by Muslims, issues related to Muslim immigration and even when presenting news regarding counterterrorism measures adopted by the Australian government. However, as demonstrated in this article, the representation of these issues varies extensively across newspapers, with The Australian being a much more biased newspaper than the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Politics of Believing and Belonging: Increasing Diversity Among Muslim Immigrants in Germany

While the arrival of large numbers of migrants from Syria has transformed the German Muslim scene in recent years, we still know very little about “how” and “to what degree.” Equally lacking is information on how existing Muslim-majority communities have experienced this transformation and what kind of relations they have established (if at all) with the “newcomers.” In search for answers to these questions, this article focuses on intercommunity and intracommunity dynamics among Muslim immigrants from Turkey and Syria in Germany. Through 20 in-depth, semistructured interviews, and participant observation in a mosque in Lower Saxony, it looks at how different identity markers influence the construction of symbolic boundaries in these communities. By doing so, it moves beyond the simplifying dichotomy of “Muslim immigrants versus non-Muslim hosts” and highlights other markers of difference, which differentiate incoming populations not only from receiving populations but also from each other.

Discrimination and health: A cross-sectional study comparing Muslims with other-religious.

The aim of this study is to report perceived discrimination among Muslims living in Norway and to address and compare associations between perceived discrimination and health among Muslims with an immigrant background and other-religious with an immigrant background. A representative sample of individuals with an immigrant background in Norway was used in a cross-sectional study design that included 5484 respondents aged 16 to 74 years. The respondents were sub-grouped after religious affiliation, and as immigrants and Norwegian-born. This sample is from 'The Survey on living conditions among persons with an immigrant background 2016', conducted by Statistics Norway. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relationship between perceived discrimination and self-rated health and between perceived discrimination and mental health problems. Our findings show that Muslims with an immigrant background are more likely to report perceived discrimination than non-Muslims with an immigrant background. Perceived discrimination was associated with poor self-rated health and mental health problems among immigrant Muslims and Norwegian-born Muslims. Among other-religious with an immigrant background, perceived discrimination had an inverse relationship with mental health problems among immigrants, while an association between perceived discrimination and poor self-rated health was found among Norwegian-born. Our findings suggest that perceived discrimination does play a role in health among minorities with an immigrant background in Norway, regardless of religion. However, the association between perceived discrimination and poor health seems to be stronger among Muslims, especially Norwegian-born Muslims.

Religious minority identity associates with stress and psychological health among Muslim and Hindu women in Bangladesh and London.

This study examined the association of minority religious identification (Hindu or Muslim) with self-reported stress and psychological symptoms among sedentee and immigrant Bangladeshi women. Women, aged 35-59 (n = 531) were drawn from Sylhet, Bangladesh and London, England. Muslim immigrants in London and Hindu sedentees in Sylhet represented minority religious identities. Muslim sedentees in Sylhet and Londoners of European descent represented majority religious identities. In bivariate analyses, minority religious identity was examined in relation to self-reported measures of stress, nervous tension, and depressed mood. Logistic regression was applied to examine the relationship between these variables while adjusting for marital status, parity, daily walking, and perceived financial comfort. In bivariate analyses, religious minorities reported more stress than religious majorities in all group comparisons (p < .05), and minority Muslims reported more nervous tension and depressed mood than majority Muslims (p < .05). In logistic regression models, minority Muslims had greater odds of high stress than majority Muslims (OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.18-3.39). Minority Muslims had greater odds of stress (OR 3.05, 95% CI 1.51-6.17) and nervous tension (OR 3.37, 95% CI 1.66-6.87) than majority Londoners. Financial comfort reduced odds of stress and symptoms in all models. Socioeconomic situation, immigration history, and minority ethnicity appear to influence the relationship between religious identity and psychosomatic symptoms in Bangladeshi women. Attention to personal and socioeconomic context is important for research examining the association between religion and mental health.