Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- List of abbreviations
- Glossary
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Dedication
- Introduction: my research observations
- 1 The identity debate
- 2 Muslims in Britain: an overview
- 3 The religious and cultural dilemma
- 4 To be or not to be British
- 5 Is the media biased against Muslims?
- 6 The niqab debate
- 7 Indignation about the proposal to include shariah law in Britain
- Conclusion: a humanitarian way forward
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - The religious and cultural dilemma
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- List of abbreviations
- Glossary
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Dedication
- Introduction: my research observations
- 1 The identity debate
- 2 Muslims in Britain: an overview
- 3 The religious and cultural dilemma
- 4 To be or not to be British
- 5 Is the media biased against Muslims?
- 6 The niqab debate
- 7 Indignation about the proposal to include shariah law in Britain
- Conclusion: a humanitarian way forward
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Identity is always ‘in process’, always ‘being formed’ (Hall 1994: 122), and I argue that it is influenced by the surroundings in which people live. The surroundings are influenced by internal and external factors. The internal factors are family and ethnic and religious community settings. External factors are schools, workplaces and institutions, including government, in the wider community. The focus in this chapter is on how young British Muslims' identity shapes up through internal factors: family, ethnic and religious community. A Muslim male scholar in Britain, Shaykh Mogra, identified two issues that have generally confronted Muslim women in Britain. First, women have not been encouraged to pursue higher education; and second, women have faced restrictions in some mosques. Shaykh Mogra gave examples of his family members:
If I look back at many of my female cousins in Britain of my generation, none of them actually have any proper GCSEs which, you know, is the basic educational achievement in our country. At the age of 16 you should have English, maths, science at least; they don't have any of that and when I look back and think why this was the case, they were not encouraged to be in the state school and there was preaching that suggested that if they go to state schools they would be corrupted, etc.
(Interview, Leicester, 14 April 2008)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Young British MuslimsIdentity, Culture, Politics and the Media, pp. 58 - 78Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2010