Factors That Promote a Muslim Religious Identity Majdouline Aziz Clemson University, [email protected]
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Clemson University TigerPrints All Dissertations Dissertations 8-2010 Maintaining the faith: Factors that promote a Muslim religious identity Majdouline Aziz Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Aziz, Majdouline, "Maintaining the faith: Factors that promote a Muslim religious identity" (2010). All Dissertations. 563. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/563 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MAINTAINING THE FAITH: FACTORS THAT PROMOTE A MUSLIM RELIGIOUS IDENTITY ____________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University ____________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy International Family and Community Studies ____________________________________________________ by Majdouline Ahmad Aziz August 2010 ____________________________________________________ Accepted by: Dr. Mark Small, Dissertation Chair Dr. Jim McDonell Dr. Sue Limber Dr. Bonnie Holaday ABSTRACT Utilizing data collected from 194 past and present members of Muslim Student Associations located across the United States, this study examined predictors of Muslim religious identity. Multivariate linear regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between Muslim religious identity and self-identification, sense of belonging, affirmation, religious involvement in ritual practices, family characteristics, peer characteristics, structured organizational involvement, area of residence, college, and the experience of a terror event such as September 11, 2001. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to assess whether the experience of a terror event explained a significant proportion of the variance in Muslim religious identity. The analyses found that self-identification, sense of belonging, affirmation, suburban area of residence, and the experience of a terror event significantly predicted Muslim religious identity. The study further found that although the experience of a terror event did explain a significant proportion of Muslim religious identity, self-identification, sense of belonging, affirmation, and area of residence were stronger predictors of Muslim religious identity. The implications of these findings are discussed. ii DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my mother, Amina Mohamad Aziz, my father, Ahmad Mahmoud Aziz, and my brothers, Mazen, Moutaz, and Moutasam Aziz. I thank God every day for the family that He has given me. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS From the beginning and throughout the completion of my dissertation project, a long list of individuals has earned my gratitude. I am first deeply grateful to my doctoral advisor and chair, Dr. Mark Small, for his supervision, advice, and guidance. Above all and the most needed, he provided me unflinching encouragement and support in various ways. I am truly grateful for his insistence on my studying a subject area that I am truly passionate about and his persistence in motivating me to reach my goals. Mark, I am indebted to you more than you know. I gratefully acknowledge Dr. Jim McDonell for his advice and support throughout this entire process. I could not have asked for a more gracious and helpful committee member. His involvement and assistance throughout this research project was crucial to its completion and made him a backbone of this research and dissertation. He nourished my intellectual maturity in the area of research methods that I will benefit from, for a long time to come. Jim, I am truly grateful in every possible way. Many thanks go in particular to Dr. Sue Limber and Dr. Bonnie Holaday for accepting to be members of the reading committee. I am much indebted to Sue for her valuable advice, supervision, and time. Sue, I gratefully thank you for your constructive comments on this dissertation. I have also greatly benefited from the guidance, advice, and kind words of Bonnie. Bonnie, your kind words and sincere thoughtfulness have not gone unnoticed. You are truly an asset to the Institute. I need to especially extend my gratitude and deep appreciation to Osnat Lavenda whose knowledge and wisdom greatly benefited me during this process. I am much iv indebted to Osnat for her help and patience. Osnat, I learned more than I could have ever hoped for from you. I will miss popping my head in your office; sometimes with a smile derived from success, other times with a frown derived from pure desperation. Mostly, I will miss joking and laughing with you. Without you, this would have been a miserable process. Lastly, I would like to thank everyone in the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life at Clemson University for their continued help and insight. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TITLE PAGE ................................................................................................................ i ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. ii DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………………... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................. iv LIST OF TABLES ... …………...………………………………………………………..viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ......... ….…………………………………..……………..….. 1 Statement of the Problem ....................................................................... ……. 7 Purpose of the Study .................................................................. ….………… 8 Significance of the Study .. ……………………….………..………………….11 Research Questions .......... ……………………….………..………………….12 Definition of Terms .............................................. …………………………...13 Organization of the Study ............... …………………………………………..13 II. LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................... …….15 Islam and Muslims in America ................... ………………………………….15 September 11, 2001, and Impacts and Backlash Against Muslim Americans ...................................... ………………………18 Theoretical Framework .............................................. …………………..……23 Hypotheses ............................. ………………………………………………..40 III. METHODOLOGY ………….……………….…………………….……………48 Research Questions ................................................. …………………………48 Methods .................................................................... ………………………..48 Delimitations ........................................ ………………….………………… 49 Limitations ................ ………………….…………………………………… 49 Power Analysis ............................................................................................ 50 Sample ........................................................................................................ 51 Participant Recruitment and Date Collection Methods ................................. 52 Instrumentation ........................................................................................... 54 Piloting the Instrument ................................................................................ 59 vi Table of Contents (Continued) Page Data Analysis ................................................................................................. 59 IV. RESULTS ...................................................................................................... 62 Data Preparation .................................................... ………………………… 62 Characteristics of the Sample ...................................……………………….. 64 Factor Structure of the RISt Scale ................................................................ 66 Reliability of the RISt scale ......................................................................... 69 Factor Analysis of Predictor Variable Scales .... ………………….………… 71 Reliability of the Predictor Variable Scales .................................................. 76 Regression ................................................................................................... 77 Summary of the Results ............................................................................... 86 V. DISCUSSION ................................................................................................ 88 Factor Structure and Reliability Analysis of Scales ................................................................................................... 88 Factors that Promote a Muslim’s Religious Identity ..................................................................................................... 90 Implications of Muslim Americans, the American General Public and MSA’s ....................................................................... 102 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................ 108 A. Power Analysis .............................................................................................. 109 B. Survey Instrument .......................................................................................... 113 C. Muslim Student Association E-mail ............................................................... 124 D. Islam: The Basic Tenets ...............................................................................