Muslim Youth in Canadian Schools: Education and the Politics of Religious Identity

This article provides an ethnographic analysis of the schooling experiences of Muslim youth in Canada who are committed to maintaining an Islamic lifestyle despite the pressures of conformity to the dominant culture. Little attention has been paid to how religious identity intersects with other forms of social difference, such as race and gender in the schooling experiences of minoritized youth. Using a case study often Muslim students and parents, this article demonstrates how Muslim students were able to negotiate and maintain their religious identities within secular public schools. The participants' narratives address the challenges of peer pressure, racism, and Islamophobia. Their stories reveal how Muslim students are located at the nexus of social difference based on their race, gender, and religious identity. The discussion further explores the dynamics through which these youth were able to negotiate the continuity of their Islamic identity and practices within schools despite the challenges that they faced. Building upon existing theories of identity maintenance and construction, this research demonstrates how the interplay of the core factors of ambivalence, role performance, and interaction and isolation are implicated in the way Muslim students negotiate the politics of religious identity in their schooling experiences.     

On the politics and practice of Muslim fertility: comparative evidence from West Africa

Recent popular works have represented Muslim fertility as dangerously high, both a cause and consequence of religious fundamentalism. This article uses comparative, statistical methods to show that this representation is empirically wrong, at least in West Africa. Although religion strongly inflects reproductive practice, its effects are not constant across different communities. In West African countries with Muslim majorities, Muslim fertility is lower than that of their non-Muslim conationals; in countries where Muslims are in the minority, their apparently higher reproductive rates converge to those of the majority when levels of education and urban residence are taken into account. A similar pattern holds for infant mortality. By contrast, in all seven countries, Muslim women are more likely to report that their most recent child was wanted. The article concludes with a discussion of the relationship between autonomy and fertility desires.     

Growth and nutritional status of Khasi boys in Northeast India relating to exogamous marriages and socioeconomic classes

The Khasis are one of the matrilineal tribes of Meghalaya in Northeast India. They belong to the Indo-Mongoloid racial stock, and speak the Monkhmer language of the Austro-Asiatic group. They have their own traditional religion (Niam Khasi), but about 65% of them have converted to Christianity. A few Khasi members have also embraced Islam through matrimonial relationship with immigrant Muslim males. The present study was based on a cross-sectional sample of 1,351 urban Khasi boys aged 3-18 years belonging to these three religious groups, with a view to understanding the effects of socioeconomic factors on growth and nutritional status, using anthropometric variables such as weight and height. The findings showed that about 60%, 29%, and 6% of these boys were below -2 Z-scores of the US National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) references in respect of weight for age, height for age, and body mass index for age, respectively. The logistic regression coefficient (beta +/- standard error) indicated that the prevalence of low weight for age (below -2 Z-scores of the NCHS references) was positively associated with age (0.088 +/- 0.014, P<0.0001), while it was inversely associated with household income (-1.216 +/- 0.030, P<0.0001). Likewise, low height for age Z-score was negatively associated with household income (-1.056 +/- 0.130, P<0.0001), although such a relationship was not significant in the case of low body mass index for age (-0.169 +/- 0.229, P>0.05). There were also significant differences between religious groups in respect of anthropometric variables. Allowing for household income, the ANCOVA test indicated that Muslim Khasi boys, who were the offspring of intermarriages between Khasi females and immigrant Muslim males, were significantly heavier and taller than Christian and Niam Khasi boys almost across ages. From about 3-10 years of age, Muslim Khasi boys were, on average, comparable to the 5th and 25th percentiles of the NCHS references of height and weight, respectively. Although it looks as though genetic mechanisms like heterosis and/or gene flow might also be associated with the larger body size in Muslim boys, such a conjecture could only be substantiated or refuted by further studies concerning genetic and more socioeconomic data on both immigrant and nonimmigrant populations.     

Costly signaling,ritual and cooperation: evidence from Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion

The apparent wastefulness of religious ritual represents a puzzle for rational choice theorists and evolutionary scholars. In recent years, it has been proposed that such rituals represent costly signals that promote intragroup cooperation precisely because of the effort and resources they require. This hypothesis was tested over the course of a 14-month long ethnographic study in the northeast of Brazil. The research focused on adherents of Candomblé, an African diasporic religion organized in autonomous congregations primarily located in low-income urban areas. Individuals who reported higher levels of religious commitment behaved more generously in a public goods economic game and revealed more instances of provided and received cooperation within their religious community. This suggests that ritual as a costly signaling may effectively predict willingness to cooperate with other group members and that the signaler may accrue benefits in the form of received cooperation. Socioeconomic variables are also shown to mediate religious signaling. This raises the possibility that signalers strategically alter their expressions of commitment as their needs and circumstances change.     

'BETWEEN BELIEF AND UNBELIEF LIES THE PERFORMANCE OF SALĀT': MEANING AND EFFICACY OF A MUSLIM RITUAL

Drawing on fieldwork in Istanbul, Turkey, the article analyses the role of the Muslim five-times-daily prayer ( salāt ), within the Islamic tradition. It is argued that the prayer, with its intricate ritual format, provides practitioners with a formidable resource for strengthening their commitment to Islam and asserting membership in a community of believers while at the same time enabling religious Muslims to pursue new and diverse interpretations of Islam. The character of the āt as a mobile discipline that can easily be inserted into very different forms of life has become especially important as religious Muslims have increasingly been incorporated into liberal society in Turkey in the past decades.     

Boundaries of belief: religious practices and the construction of ethnic identity in Hui Muslim communities†

Though scholars of ethnicity remark that religion is an important qualifying attribute for membership in an ethnic group, the nature of the relationship between religious faith and ethnic identity requires further exploration. An approach that emphasizes the importance of religious practices in forming and maintaining ethnic boundaries may offer a more complete explanation of the relationship between religion and ethnicity. This article proposes a framework for understanding how religious practices influence ethnic boundary formation and maintenance processes. I propose that religious practices may play a universalizing, negotiating, or differentiating role in influencing the formation and maintenance of ethnic boundaries. To illustrate these various roles played by religious processes, the article presents a heuristic case study of Islamic faith in boundary setting processes in Hui Muslim communities in China.     

'Who the hell do you think you are?' Promoting religious identity among young Hindus in Britain

This article explores how Hindu activism in Britain challenges our understanding of the relationship between ethnicity and religion. It argues against the prevalent model in which Hindu identity is understood as a natural ‘product’ of ethnic identity development. Instead, this article calls for thinking about current religious activism as a response to multicultural politics, national belonging and the experience of being an ethnic minority. Based on anthropological fieldwork, the article examines the development of an organization that has successfully established Hindu societies across the UK, one that changed from initially being pro-Hindu to one that espouses Hindutva. The analysis of the rhetoric of a pro-Hindu speech reveals the aims of this group to distinguish themselves from other Asians, particularly the Muslim minority. Such examples of religious activism among “diaspora” youth require us to rethink our understandings of the connections between religion and ethnicity.     

Organ transplantation: contemporary Sunni Muslim legal and ethical perspectives

The problems that organ transplantation poses to the Muslim mind may be summarized as follows: firstly, a Muslim believes that whatever he owns or possesses has been given to him as an amanah (trust) from Allah. Would it not be a breach of trust to give consent for the removal of parts of one's body, while still alive, for transplantation to benefit one's child, sibling or parent? Secondly, the Shari'ah (Islamic Law) emphasizes the sacredness of the human body. Would it not then be an act of aggression against the human body, tantamount to its mutilation, if organs were to be removed after death for the purpose of transplantation? In this paper I attempt to illustrate how the Muslim jurists have tried to resolve the dilemma of Muslims by providing them with certain guidelines based on the original sources of Islam, namely, the Qur'an and the Prophetic tradition. In order to assist the followers of other religious traditions to grasp the gravity of the problem posed by organ transplantation to the Muslim mind, I begin by discussing the opinions of Muslim jurists on the issue of utilization of human parts. Thereafter, I touch upon the resolutions taken by the various Islamic Juridical Academies on the issue in question. Finally, I shed light upon the inclusion of organ donation in a Muslim Will and the enforceable nature of such a will.     

Religious Affiliation Modulates Weekly Cycles of Cropland Burning in Sub-Saharan Africa

Vegetation burning is a common land management practice in Africa, where fire is used for hunting, livestock husbandry, pest control, food gathering, cropland fertilization, and wildfire prevention. Given such strong anthropogenic control of fire, we tested the hypotheses that fire activity displays weekly cycles, and that the week day with the fewest fires depends on regionally predominant religious affiliation. We also analyzed the effect of land use (anthrome) on weekly fire cycle significance. Fire density (fire counts.km^-2) observed per week day in each region was modeled using a negative binomial regression model, with fire counts as response variable, region area as offset and a structured random effect to account for spatial dependence. Anthrome (settled, cropland, natural, rangeland), religion (Christian, Muslim, mixed) week day, and their 2-way and 3-way interactions were used as independent variables. Models were also built separately for each anthrome, relating regional fire density with week day and religious affiliation. Analysis revealed a significant interaction between religion and week day, i.e. regions with different religious affiliation (Christian, Muslim) display distinct weekly cycles of burning. However, the religion vs. week day interaction only is significant for croplands, i.e. fire activity in African croplands is significantly lower on Sunday in Christian regions and on Friday in Muslim regions. Magnitude of fire activity does not differ significantly among week days in rangelands and in natural areas, where fire use is under less strict control than in croplands. These findings can contribute towards improved specification of ignition patterns in regional/global vegetation fire models, and may lead to more accurate meteorological and chemical weather forecasting.     

Integration and religiosity among the Turkish second generation in Europe: a comparative analysis across four capital cities

Drawing on recent cross-national surveys of the Turkish second generation, we test hypotheses of secularization and of religious vitality for Muslim minorities in Europe. Secularization predicts an inverse relationship between structural integration and religiosity, such that the Turkish second generation would be less religious with higher levels of educational attainment and intermarriage. The religious vitality hypothesis predicts the maintenance of religion in the second generation, highlighting the role of religious socialization within immigrant families and communities. Taking a comparative approach, these hypotheses are tested in the context of different national approaches to the institutionalization of Islam as a minority religion in four European capital cities: Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels and Stockholm. Across contexts, religious socialization strongly predicts second-generation religiosity, in line with religious vitality. The secularization hypothesis finds support only among the second generation in Berlin, however, where Islam is least accommodated.     

Race differences in the prevalence of the factor V Leiden mutation in Kuwaiti nationals

Factor V Leiden mutation (FVL; G1691A) is an established risk factor for venous thromboembolic disorders. FVL was reported with high prevalence in Caucasians (1–15%) but was absent in non-Caucasians like Africans and Asians. Studies reported FVL in 5–27% of Arabs and non-Arabs living in the Middle Eastern countries northern to the Arabian Peninsula, but was almost absent in Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula itself. Kuwait is an Arabic country present on the northern border of the Arabian Peninsula, and Kuwaitis are originally from Saudi Arabia (Southern to Kuwait and within the Arabian Peninsula) or from Iran and Iraq (northern to Kuwait and the Arabian Peninsula). This study was conducted to study FVL in Kuwaitis in relation to their origin. Real-time PCR was performed on DNA samples of 285 apparently healthy Kuwaitis using specially designed primers and probes for FVL. There were 109 Kuwaitis of Iranian origin, 71 of Iraqi origin and 105 of Saudi origin. FVL was present in 7 and 5 Kuwaitis of Iranian and Iraqi origin, respectively. None of the Kuwaitis of Saudi origin had the mutation. Prevalence of FVL in Kuwaitis of Iranian (6.42%) and Iraqi (7.04%) origin were statistically different from prevalence in Kuwaitis of Saudi (0%) origin (P-value < 0.05). No difference was found between females and males (P-value > 0.6). In conclusion, FVL is present in Kuwaitis of Iranian or Iraqi origin only. Therefore, testing and providing genetic consultation for FVL may be needed in those Kuwaitis only which should save time, cost and efforts. However, this assumption should be confirmed by other studies and on larger number of cases.     

Associations of religious and existential variables with psychosocial factors and biomarkers of cardiovascular risk in bereavement

Bereavement increases in prevalence as people age and is associated with multiple psychological and health risks, including cardiovascular risk. Religious and existential variables may play an important role in the health impacts of bereavement. Theorized pathways linking religious and existential variables with health have suggested these associations are due to intermediary psychosocial variables, but have not been tested in bereavement. This research empirically tested these pathways in a bereaved population. In N = 73 adults within 1 year of bereavement (mean age = 64.36), this study examined associations between (1) religious and existential characteristics (religious and spiritual struggles, intrinsic religiosity, and existential quest) and intermediary psychosocial variables (depression, loneliness, and difficulties in emotion regulation), and between (2) intermediary psychosocial variables and bereavement-relevant health outcomes (self-reported health, change in health since last year, grief severity, and cardiovascular biomarkers). Cardiovascular biomarkers (heart rate, heart rate variability, and blood pressure) were collected before, during, and after a laboratory grief recall emotion elicitation. Anticipated associations between self-reported religious and existential characteristics and intermediary variables, and between intermediary variables and self-reported bereavement-relevant outcomes, were consistently observed. However, associations between intermediary variables and cardiovascular biomarkers were largely unobserved. This study examined the role of religious and existential variables in whole-person health after bereavement and is among the first to include biomarkers of cardiovascular risk. Results suggest that although religious and existential variables are associated with important bereavement-related outcomes, these associations may be “skin-deep,” and extensions to cardiovascular functioning should be re-examined.     

Course of blood pressure in mild hypertensives after withdrawal of long term antihypertensive treatment. Medical Research Council Working Party on Mild Hypertension.

A series of 1418 men and 1,347 women with mild hypertension (diastolic phase V 90-109 mm Hg) aged 35-64 who had either had long term antihypertensive treatment with bendrofluazide or propranolol or taken placebo tablets for a similar period were randomly allocated to groups in which their tablets were either stopped or continued. The course of blood pressure and of biochemical variables was followed up for two years. Mean blood pressures rose rapidly after the withdrawal of active treatment, and between nine months and one year after stopping treatment the antihypertensive effect had almost disappeared. The effect persisting longer than this, and possibly due to resetting of the baroreceptors or of other blood pressure control mechanisms, was very small, and as the rise in mean pressure was due to an upward movement in general distribution there was no evidence of a subgroup in whom these mechanisms had been permanently reset to a clinically important extent. After withdrawal of propranolol the rise in pressure was more rapid in younger than in older people. After stopping bendrofluazide pressure rose more rapidly in men who had had higher pressures before and during treatment; this effect was not seen in women. Disturbances in biochemical variables associated with drug treatment had largely resolved by the end of two years after withdrawal. Stopping placebo tablets made no consistent difference to blood pressure.     

ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION: CONTEMPORARY SUNNI MUSLIM LEGAL AND ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES

The problems that organ transplantation poses to the Muslim mind may be summarized as follows: firstly, a muslim believes that whatever he owns or possesses has been given to him as an amānah (trust) from Alla¯h. Would it not be a breach of trust to give consent for the removal of parts of one's body, while still alive, for transplantation to benefit one's child, sibling or parent? Secondly, the Sharā'ah (Islamic Law) emphasizes the sacredness of the human body. Would it not then be an act of aggression against the human body, tantamount to its mutilation, if organs were to be removed after death for the purpose of transplantation? In this paper I attempt to illustrate how the Muslim jurists have tried to resolve the dilemma of Muslims by providing them with certain guidlines based on the original sources of Islam, namely, the Qur'n and the Prophetic tradition. In order to assist the followers of other religious traditions to grasp the gravity of the problem posed by organ transplantation to the Muslim mind, I begin by discussing the opinions of Muslim jurists on the issue of utilization of human parts. Thereafter, I touch upon the resolutions taken by the various Islamic Juridical Academies on the issue in question. Finally, I shed light upon the inclusion of organ donation in a Muslim Will and the enforceable nature of such a will     

The three “i”s of workplace accommodation of Muslim religious practices: instrumental,internal, and informal

The accommodation of Muslim religious practices is an increasingly salient political issue across Western Europe. Hitherto, most research has focused on how states accommodate Muslim religious practices, and sociological scholarship on workplace accommodation is still extremely scarce. This article fills the gap in the extant literature by presenting a qualitative analysis of over 300 requests for religious accommodation in the workplace in Belgium. The authors contend that turning the spotlight from state to workplace accommodation of Muslim religious practices allows the discovery of different answers to the “hows” and the “whys” of minority religious accommodation. Different than state accommodation, workplace accommodation is characterized by three “i”s: it is granted or refused on the basis of instrumental argumentations; it is regulated informally and resolved internally. This article proposes an institutionalist framework adapted to the world of work to explain the specific features of workplace religious accommodation of Muslim religious practices.     

"He won't be my son": Middle Eastern Muslim men's discourses of adoption and gamete donation

In the Sunni Muslim world, religious mandates prohibit both adoption and gamete donation as solutions to infertility, including in the aftermath of in vitro fertilization (IVF) failures. However, both of these options are now available in two Middle Eastern countries with significant Shi'ite Muslim populations (Iran and Lebanon). On the basis of fieldwork in multisectarian Lebanon, I examine in this article attitudes toward both adoption and gamete donation among childless Muslim men who are undertaking IVF with their wives. No matter the religious sect, most Muslim men in Lebanon continue to resist both adoption and gamete donation, arguing that such a child "won't be my son". However, against all odds, some Muslim men are considering and undertaking these alternatives to family formation as ways to preserve their loving marriages, satisfy their fatherhood desires, and challenge religious dictates, which they view as out of step with new developments in science and technology. Thus, in this article I examine the complicated intersections of religion, technology, marriage, and parenthood in a part of the world that is both poorly understood and negatively stereotyped, particularly in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.     

Religious visibility: perceptions and experiences of residents in two Muslim concentration suburbs in Melbourne,Australia

In recent decades, and especially after the 9/11/2001 terrorist attack on US, an antipathy towards and fear of Muslim minorities in Western countries have increased, forming part of the current widespread anti-immigration sentiment. In this context, the ‘religiously visible’ Muslims are the most obvious target of negative perceptions, discrimination and other manifestations of ‘Islamophobia’. This paper uses quantitative and qualitative data on religious visibility collected through a survey and in-depth interviews in two suburbs with residential concentrations of Muslims in Melbourne, Australia. The two localities, ‘Broadburb’ and ‘Greenburb’, have similar proportions of Muslim residents (about 1/3) but the levels of religious visibility differ. The paper discusses perceptions and experiences of being religiously visible in a secular society, and particularly being a ‘visible Muslim’. We also discuss perceptions of Muslim visibility by others – non-visible Muslims and non-Muslims – who share neighbourhoods with the visible Muslim minority.     

The effects of prenatal exposure to Ramadan on stature during childhood and adolescence: Evidence from the Indonesian Family Life Survey

Many pregnant Muslim women fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. A number of studies have reported negative life outcomes in adulthood for children who were prenatally exposed to Ramadan. However, other studies document minimal to no impact on neonatal indicators. Using data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey consisting of 45,246 observations of 21,723 children born to 9771 mothers, we contribute to the current discussion on prenatal exposure to Ramadan by examining the effects on stature (height-for-age Z-scores, weight-for-age Z-scores, and body-mass-index-for-age Z-scores: HAZ, WAZ, and BAZ, respectively) from early childhood to late adolescence (0–19 years of age). We introduce an objective mother’s religiosity indicator to improve the intention-to-treat estimations. Children were classified into three groups based on their mother’s religion-religiosity: religious Muslims, less-religious Muslims, and non-Muslims. Using cluster-robust mother fixed-effects, we found negative effects on stature for children born to religious Muslim mothers. The effects were age-dependent and timing-sensitive. For example, children born to religious Muslim mothers were shorter in late adolescence (15–19 years of age) compared to their unexposed siblings if they were prenatally exposed in the first trimester of pregnancy (HAZ difference = −0.105 SD; p-val. <0.05). Interestingly, we found positive effects on stature for exposed less-religious Muslim children that peak in early adolescence (10–14 years of age) and negative effects on stature for exposed non-Muslim children that occur only in early childhood (0–4 years of age). We nuance our discussion of health and socioeconomic factors to explain these surprising results.     

Muslim immigrants and religious group feelings: self-identification and attitudes among Sunni and Alevi Turkish-Dutch

Affective ratings of multiple religious (sub)groups (Muslims, Christians, Jews and non-believers, as well as Sunni, Alevi and Sjiit Muslims), the endorsement of Islamic minority rights and religious group identification were examined among Sunni and Alevi Turkish-Dutch participants. The findings show that both groups differ in important ways. Some Alevi participants considered themselves Muslims but others interpreted Alevi identity in a secular way. The Sunnis were quite negative towards Jews and non-believers, they more strongly endorsed Islamic minority rights and they had very high Muslim group identification. Furthermore, the Sunnis were negative towards Alevis and the Alevis were negative towards the Sunnis. Muslim group identification was positively and strongly related to feelings towards Muslims and to the endorsement of Islamic group rights.