British Muslims make up the second largest, and fastest growing, non- Christian religious community in Britain. Because of this, their integration into society has become a focus of interest for academic study and in broader social and political debates. Despite this, the question of how Muslims make sense of their own religious identity remains relatively unexplored in previous research. The same is true for the question of how they construct understandings of what integration means to them and of how this relates to what they say about their own wellbeing. This thesis aims to fill these gaps in extant research and to provide a platform for the voices of this minority group to be heard. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 20 first generation and 20 second generation Muslim immigrants and a further four focus groups were also conducted. Gender was balanced across all of these. Data were analysed using discourse analysis focusing on participants’ discursive constructions of religion, identity, integration, wellbeing, and the problems that impacted on wellbeing. Analysis showed that British Muslims adopt a variety of forms of categorization in constructing their religious and ethnic identity. Some first generation Muslims focus on presenting their identities as flexible phenomena that depend upon the culture they are living in; others display a rigid religious identity. Second generation Muslims use hyphenated identities for defining the multiplicity of their belongings to Britain and their ethnic home country. Integration in Britain is usually welcomed by both generations but is described as being restricted and guided by religious boundaries. British Muslims construct happiness and unhappiness in relation to life in Britain in a complex manner. The most prevalent reasons they give for happiness are the religious freedom and security found in Britain. But these are described by comparing Britain with their home countries, where such freedoms and security are often said to be lacking. In a sense, this allows participants to legitimize their status as immigrants into Britain. Unhappiness is also associated with life in Britain, with references made to moral decline and to discrimination and racism. Participants also construct a sense of their wellbeing, or lack of it, in relation to other problems. They present Muslims’ selfs-egregation, and a lack of proper leadership among Muslims in Britain, as further major problems associated with living in Britain. However, while talking about these problems, participants seek to distance themselves from them by making vague attributions of agency and by indicating that such problems were faced by others rather than by themselves. When participants talk of ways in which Muslims’ wellbeing could be enhanced, they focus on Muslims’ own need for personal improvement but also on the need for responsible media coverage of Muslims and Islam. The thesis concludes by discussing these findings in relation to previous literature and by reviewing their implications for future policy, practice and research.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / South Africa, like many other countries has a population of individuals who are practicing Muslims and simultaneously gay. The ability to integrate these two identities is hindered by the stigma and discrimination of traditional interpretations of religious texts, religious clergy, and the Muslim community’s response to homosexuality. In the present study, the experiences of gay Muslim men was investigated as a scarce body of literature is available that focuses on the experiences of these individuals. The focus of this research was fuelled partly by the belief that homosexuality is a reality within the Muslim community and that contemporary attitudes affect and marginalize individuals who are both gay and Muslim. A focus group was conducted with six individuals. The main aim of the study was to understand the personal disposition of men who are both Muslim and homosexual and to explore how attitudes of people impacts on their sense of ‘self’. The transcripts were analysed using thematic content analysis to determine the themes that emerged from the research material. The main findings of the study included that Muslim religious identity was a salient discourse that informed how they understood, made meaning of, and internalised their gay identity. The majority of the participants responded to measures of internalised homophobia, gay identity development, religious commitment,scriptural literalism, and post conventional religious reasoning. Themes and trends observed in the discussions indicated that levels of religious commitment did not predict positive adjustment; scriptural literalism was not related to internalised homophobia or sexual identity development; and high levels of post conventional religious reasoning signifies lower levels of internalised homophobia and higher levels of sexual identity integration.These findings provide a basis for future research that may lead to the development of interventions for gay individuals experiencing religious conflict.

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ABSTRACT THE CRUSADE OF RAMON LLULL: APOLOGETICS AND EVANGELISM TO MUSLIMS DURING THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY Numa Ulisses Gomez, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2018 Chair: Dr. James A. Parker III Ramon Llull was a thirteenth-century Franciscan monk who lived during a tumultuous period in Spain’s history. Those who have studied missions believe Llull is the first and greatest missionary to Muslims. He is recognized as the greatest Catalan mystic and poet whose writings helped influence Neo-Platonic mysticism throughout Medieval and seventeenth-century Europe. He believed love for Christ and love for the lost should be the only motivating factors to evangelize and teach the lost. Many modern missionaries and historians believe Llull understood salvation by grace in the blood of Jesus Christ. Llull was always in good standing with the church during his lifetime. Chapter 1 gives an overview of Llull’s life, calling, missionary zeal, writings and apologetic work, and the reasons why he taught the truths of Scripture. Chapter 2 offers a historical background and setting for Llull’s work and his calling into ministry. Chapter 3 explains his theology and philosophy of ministry, giving a panoramic view of his ministry. Chapter 4 digs deeper into his apologetic, specifically, his refutation of Averroes philosophy. Chapter 5 looks at his apologetic work in the Jewish community and evangelism of Jews. Chapter 6 looks at his apologetic work within his own faith community and introduces some of his literature aimed at refuting pagan philosophy in his culture. Chapter 7 reviews at his travels and missionary journeys and impact in society. Chapter 8 is some concluding thoughts on his work in discipling others and in society. Llull’s aim in his writings and his ministry was the conversion of Muslim and Jews “that in the whole world there may not be more than one language, one belief, and one faith.” Soon after his conversion, Llull concluded he should evangelize Muslims, who were numerous in southern Spain. He was inspired by the writings and actions of St. Francis of Assisi who lived earlier, and had reached out to Muslims in hopes of converting many to Christianity. Llull’s apologetic work focused on refuting the philosophy of the Muslim philosopher Averroes. Llull’s purpose was to show Muslims the error of this philosophy so that they could not fail to see the truth. The strength of the Muslim religion in the age of scholasticism was its philosophy, and with this in mind, Llull developed a system or logical machine (Art) where theological propositions could be arranged in circles, squares, triangles, and other geometric figures so that opponents could not reject his arguments. Llull exalted the doctrine of the Trinity as central to evangelism, spiritual formation, and apologetic work. Llull believed personal testimony was far superior to any philosophic argument because it testified to the power of the gospel and not to a system. Llull took into account faith and reason as acceptable (in terms of belief) to all three religions. This dissertation explored his spirituality and how it influenced not only his personal life, but also apologetic and evangelistic work.

This dissertation explores what it means to belong in Berlin and Germany following a significant change in the citizenship laws in 2000, which legally reoriented the law away from a “German” legal identity rooted in blood-descent belonging to a more territorially-based conception. The primary goal is to understand attempts at performing inclusive belonging by the state and other actors, with mostly those of “foreign heritage” at the center, and these attempts’ pitfalls, opportunities, challenges, and strange encounters. It presents qualitative case studies to draw attention to interculturality and its related concepts as they manifest in a variety of contexts. This study presents a performance analysis of a ceremony at a major national museum project and utilizes a discursive analysis of the national and international media surrounding a unique controversy about soccer and Islam. The study moves to a peripheral neighborhood in Berlin and a marginal subject, a migration background Gymnasium student, who featured prominently in an expose about failing schools, using interviews and a text analysis to present competing narratives. Finally it examines the intimate, local view of a self-described “intercultural” after-school center aimed at migration-background girls, drawing extensively on ethnographic interviews and media generated by the girls.These qualitative encounters help illuminate how an abstract and often vague set of concepts within the intercultural paradigm becomes tactile when encountering those for whom it was intended.

Western and Eastern societies are known to vary in terms of their important values, identities and dress practices. The Muslim culture is a typical Eastern culture, in which the veil is the most visible symbol of a woman’s Islamic identity. Today many Muslims live in Western societies. The non-Muslim cultural context has resulted in Muslim women becoming acculturated to the new context and thereby having adopted new patterns of dress. South Africa is generally considered to be a Western society. South African Muslim women follow a variety of dress practices, and take part in the acculturation process to different degrees in order to adapt to the cultural context. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, but in South Africa Muslims are a minority group. While various international studies have focused on the values and identities that influence Muslim women’s dress practices, very few studies have analysed these aspects within a South African context. This research study fills an important contextual gap in existing knowledge on the behaviour of Muslim women in terms of their dress practices, as related to their values and identity. The study makes a contribution to the fields of culture and apparel behaviour research. e fields of culture and apparel behaviour research. Female Muslim students attending a university in Pretoria follow varied dress practices. While some individuals wear traditional Islamic garments, others follow Western fashion trends. These differences in dress can be attributed to the acculturation process. The campus environment is a multicultural context. Female Muslim students must decide to what extent they are willing to adopt the new values, identities and dress practices that surround them. The aim of this study is to explore and describe the relationship between values and identity in the dress practices of female Muslim students attending a university in Pretoria. The study’s literature review includes explanations of different value typologies, identity types and acculturation strategies. All of these concepts are related to dress. A cultural perspective served as the theoretical framework for the study. This perspective recognises the relationship between the material and non-material aspects of culture and provides a framework to determine how abstract concepts manifest in dress over time. The sample consisted of 200 female Muslim students enrolled at the University of Pretoria. Participants were all between 17 and 25 years of age. Non-probability sampling methods were used, including purposive and snowball sampling. Participants were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire. An exploratory survey research design was followed with a quantitative approach to collect data. The results of the study revealed that participants could not be divided into three groups according to the different acculturation strategies, but rather into two groups, based on less modest and more modest dress practices. Only slight differences in values and identity were identified between the two groups. While the group who followed less modest dress practices placed more importance on social values, the group following more modest dress practices placed more importance on religious values and found a Muslim identity to be more predominant. All other values and identities were rated as being equally significant to both groups and were also ranked in the same order of importance. / Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / gm2014 / Consumer Science / unrestricted

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how a ruling-class actor attempted to reinvent and reconstitute an ethnic subject. Dr I.D. Du Plessis was, among other things, an Afrikaner litterateur and Commissioner of Coloured Affairs between 1930 and 1962, the period covered by this thesis. In Cape Town he applied himself to "preserve" what was known as "the malays". Although having an historical presence in Cape Town, defining the "malays" was always a problem as their very basis was in the process of being eroded as industrialisation forced social and communal changes. But the specificity of the "malays" was not an ethnic specificity with a rigid system of control and leadership, and staunchly cast against other sets of "identities" (such as Indians or "coloureds"). As chapter one shows, Du Plessis initiated the project at a conjuncture when the existence of ethnic units was presumed and the efforts to "preserve" them were profoundly political. A background to his ideological location is also discussed. From his particular location he journeyed amongst the "malays" and attempted to reinvent them as a specific ethnic unit fixed in space and time. Chapter two presents Du Plessis' model of "malay ethnicity" and its roots in history.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-241). / This dissertation seeks to investigate the experiences of South African Muslim women in relation to sexual dynamics and marital relationships. By using in-depth interviews as the main empirical research method, this feminist study foregrounds women's voices in the production of religious meaning. I explore dominant religious discourses that influence women's conceptualisations of sexuality and the related implications for sexual praxis in contemporary Muslim communities that are also characterised by living conditions of poverty and violence. Focusing on women's engagements with religious meaning as it relates to their intimate relationships, the dissertation engages these findings with relevant literature and theory proposed by Islamic feminists on issues of morality, ethics and agency. This study finds that while patriarchal religious norms powerfully influence and give meaning to the lives of many Muslim women, these same women also contest, subvert and reconstitute these norms in varying ways. The diversity and richness of women's narratives illustrate the multifaceted, paradoxical and ambivalent nature of religious discourses as it is embodied in everyday life. I conclude that religious systems of meaning as they are lived in this local context are marked by tensions between patriarchal and egalitarian perspectives that are imbricated and interwoven in a variety of ways. The dissertation contends that the inclusion of women's narratives is imperative in order to highlight the dynamic nature of religion as well as to challenge patriarchal legacies that still impact many local contexts.

Thesis advisor: Eve E. Spangler / Thesis advisor: C. Shawn C. McGuffey / My dissertation, “Race, Religion, and Class at the Intersection of High-Skilled Immigration,” takes a comprehensive approach to understanding the contemporary contexts of U.S. immigration underlined by Islamophobia and neo-liberal conditions of the U.S. economy. Methodologically, the data for my dissertation comes from the lived experiences of first-generation South-Asian Muslim immigrants arriving as young adults in search of their American dream, pursuing their graduate education in the fields of liberal arts, and science and technology, finding job prospects as high-skilled labor, growing into families, and emerging as American citizens. I study their acculturation and integration experiences, using two distinct groups of high-skilled migrants, i.e., short-term (international students) and long-term (permanent-residents), for which I conducted a total of 68 life-history interviews across the two categories. These ethno-racial and religiously othered identities located at the confluence of their Asian American and South Asian identities, model minority stereotypes, and racialized Muslim constructs present a unique window in examining the social and cultural processes of high-skilled immigration underlined by the political contexts of the War on Terror (WOT) era, and the recent Muslim ban. I study these intersectional identities using the case of Pakistani migrants, who continue to be the largest Muslim immigrant group by national origins in the U.S. Moreover, they also have higher skill levels than the native population (MPI 2015), making the non-white, Pakistani Muslim immigrant experience in the U.S. ideal for the study of high-skilled immigration.The first chapter, titled “Double Consciousness: How Pakistani Graduate Students Navigate Their Contested Identities in American Universities,” contributes to the knowledge of contemporary contexts of Islamophobia. It presents a global and transnational frame to DuBoisian theories of double consciousness, illustrating how Pakistani graduate students perceive their religious and national identities as threatening within the Western political constructs of Islamic terrorism. They experience a sense of twoness as they pursue their academic lives in the United States. While they see their religion as an extension of their cultural selves, they battle with the social constructions of terrorism imposed on their Muslim and Pakistani identities by the American political rhetoric on WOT. Thus, continuously challenging the stereotypes surrounding their contested identities as global Muslim migrants. The research has been published alongside educational policy practitioners and academics in a Springer publication titled International Students from Asia: The Two-Way Street of Learning and Living Globalization. The second chapter, titled “Gendered acculturation: Pakistani international graduate students navigating U.S. culture,” is a publication in the Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and presents new ways of thinking about the acculturation of non-white migrants as a gendered process. I demonstrate that the interplay of their intersectional identities underlines their acculturative strategies. Moreover, their gender identity emerges as a master status, shaping how they interact with different aspects of American culture distinct from their home cultural settings. The third article, titled “From 9/11 to Travel Bans: The Contemporary Ethno-Racial, High-Skilled Muslim American experience,” focused on the experiences of long-term immigrants, examines how South Asian Muslim Americans come to terms with the outburst of Islamophobia surrounding their ethno-racial and religious identities. The study theoretically contributes to understanding the intersectional relationships of upwardly mobile classed, gendered, and racialized immigrant identities that conflate the issues of race and religion. Bringing together racialization theory, intersectionality theory, and the concept of master status, I demonstrate how high-skilled Muslim immigrants present their understandings of the Islamophobic contexts of the American mainstream. I show that while their religious identity serves as a master status to their racialized experiences, the intersectional dimensions of their complex identities are crucial to how they experience overt and covert forms of Islamophobia in their personal and professional lives. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

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