DOCSLIB.ORG

Race, Religion, and Cultural Identity: Reconciling the Jurisprudence of Race and Religion

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Race, Religion, and Cultural Identity: Reconciling the Jurisprudence of Race and Religion Indiana Law Journal Volume 73 Issue 1 Article 3 Winter 1997 Race, Religion, and Cultural Identity: Reconciling the Jurisprudence of Race and Religion Tseming Yang United States Department of Justice Follow this and additional works at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, and the Religion Law Commons Recommended Citation Yang, Tseming (1997) "Race, Religion, and Cultural Identity: Reconciling the Jurisprudence of Race and Religion," Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 73 : Iss. 1 , Article 3. Available at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol73/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Journals at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Indiana Law Journal by an authorized editor of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Race, Religion, and Cultural Identity: Reconciling the Jurisprudence of Race and Religion t TSEMING YANG* INTRODUCTION .................................................. 120 I. SIMILARITY OF RACE AND RELIGION: A FUNCTIONAL APPROACH ....... 124 A. Religious Discriminationand Race Discrimination ............... 124 B. Race and Religion as Aspects of CulturalIdentity ................ 127 1. The Value of Cultural Identity and Group Membership ......... 127 2. Religion and Race as Similar Cultural Groupings .............. 129 C. Religion Clausesand EqualProtection Clauses as Protectionfor Individual CulturalIdentity ...................... 135 D. Race and Religion Under the Constitution ...................... 140 1. The Equality Principle ..................................... 140 2. Equal Protection .......................................... 146 3. Liberty and Due Process ................................... 148 II. RECONCILING THE JURISPRUDENCE OF RACE AND RELIGION: TOWARD AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO CULTURAL IDENTITY ........ 151 A. Religion as the Primary Model ................................ 151 B. Pervasive Regulation of Race and Religion: Nonentanglement and Segregation ............................. 154 C. Formal vs. Substantive Equality: Mandatory Religious Accommodations, "'Cultural"Accommodations, and Washington v. Davis ..................................... 156 D. Inclusion and Exclusion: Affirmative Action and Legislative Accommodation ............................................ 162 1. Criticisms of Affirmative Action: Of Stigmatic Injuries, "Incidental Burdens" on "Innocent Victims," and Free Riders ... 164 2. Permissible Forms of Affirmative Action: Diversity as a Means to Integration .......................... 173 3. Religious Inclusion and Exclusion: Legislative Accommodations and Endorsement Jurisprudence ............................. 180 CONCLUSION .................................................... 184 t © 1997 by Tseming Yang. * Attorney, United States Department of Justice; J.D., 1992, University of California at Berkeley; A.B., 1988, Harvard College. The views expressed in this Article are those of the author alone and do not represent the views of the Department of Justice. I thank Maggie Chon, Neil Gotanda, Angela Harris, Kenneth Karst, Howard Shelanski, Mike Wall, and Frank Wu for the valuable insights they have provided, as well as the participants of the 1996 Asian Pacific American Law Professors Conference, where an earlier version of this Article was presented. This work would not have been possible without the continual support of my wife Tinling Choong. INDIANA LA W JOURNAL [Vol. 73:119 INTRODUCTION Although race and religion generally have been treated in very distinct lines of constitutional jurisprudence, government actions with respect to them, in particular toward racial and religious outsiders,' raise similar concerns. Recently, these parallels have been acknowledged by the Supreme Court in Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet2 and have led to suggestions by some commentators, such as Neil Gotanda, on how they could be treated constitutionally alike.3 The similarities of race4 and religion' can be traced 1. In this Article I use the terms "minority" and "outsider group" interchangeably. 2. 512 U.S. 687, 728 (1994) (Kennedy, J., concurring) ("[G]overnment may not segregate people on account of their race, [as] ... it may not segregate on the basis of religion"); see Colloquium on Law, Religion, and Culture, 26 CUMB. L. REV. 1 (1995- 1996) (devoting entire issue to the religion analogue of racial segregation raised in Kiryas Joel); Abner S. Greene, Kiryas Joel and Two Mistakes About Equality, 96 COLUM. L. REV. 1, 57-83 (1996) (arguing that in Kiryas Joel, the Supreme Court took an approach to religious accommodation more in line with its stance on affirmative action); see also Jesse H. Choper, Religion and Race Under the Constitution: Similaritiesand Differences, 79 CORNELL L. REV. 491 (1994). 3. See Neil Gotanda, A Critique of "Our ConstitutionIs Color-Blind", 44 STAN. L. REV. 1, 64-68 (1991) (suggesting treatment of racial affirmative action along religious accommodation lines); David E. Steinberg, Religious Exemption as Affirmative Action, 40 EMORY L.J. 77 (1991) (suggesting treatment of religious accommodation along racial affirmative action lines). 4. In this Article I use the terms "race" and "skin color" to designate a cultural or ethnic group. See, e.g., Ozawa v. United States, 260 U.S. 178, 197 (1922) (illustrating the use of terms denoting skin color to designate cultural identity). In its strictly scientific conception, race (and skin color) has had little more importance than other particular physical characteristics, such as hair color or height. Thus it is not as a term designating certain primary physiological phenotypes of humans but rather as a cultural and social concept, and in its societal and legal consequences, that "race" has been important in American society. In that respect, it has acquired a meaning entirely independent of its scientific moorings. See Gotanda, supra note 3, at 28-34 & n. 116 (discussing Justice White's description of race in Saint Francis College v. Al Khazraji, 481 U.S. 604 (1987)). For a discussion of the social conceptions of race that have been significant in American history, see id. at 36-40, 56-59. See also infra text accompanying notes 61-65. 5. Here, I consider the functional aspects of religion as a source of group identity and social cohesion. There are of course important cognitive (explanations of mysterious events), and emotional human need for order and assurance against forces beyond human control-aspects of religion. See generally J. MILTON YINGER, RELIGION, SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 52-56 (1957). While I do not discuss these aspects separately, they are part and parcel of the cultural value framework that religion contributes to. See infra note 50 and accompanying discussion. To the extent that religious beliefs are not closely related to a person's sense of identity, belonging, or cultural framework, such beliefs are much more like ordinary opinions or other beliefs that are also protected under the Free Speech Clause. See infra notes 98-99 and accompanying text. In that sense, religious beliefs that are held less deeply or are less central to an individual carry less of the special importance that is oftentimes associated with religion. Of course, my intention in this Article is not to engage in an inquiry into what is or is not part of a religion; rather, it is to assess those qualities commonly associated with religion that make it so different from 1997] RACE, RELIGION, AND CULTURAL IDENTITY to the analogous roles that both play with respect to individuals and their standing in our society.6 The passion, prejudice, and hatred that both have evoked arise out of differences that cannot be rationally debated,7 oftentimes involving matters such as beliefs, values, and experiences that simply exist without a logical basis and without a common ground of reference.' In fact, racial discrimination frequently cannot be readily distinguished from religious discrimination, and vice 9 versa. It is not surprising, then, that even though constitutional jurisprudence does not formally combine race and religion, such parallels exist. For instance, government "may not segregate people on account of their race, [as] ...it may not segregate on the basis of religion," nor may it use either as a basis for discriminating against a person." Although the constitutional jurisprudence of both race and religion has appealed to the moral imperative of equality in our society, that goal has been elusive in the race context. The discrepancy can, in part, be traced to the unique and severe hostility and prejudice that some racial minority groups, such as African Americans or Native Americans, have encountered in the past. While both racial and religious conflicts continue to exist in our society, racial divisions have a noticeably greater effect on people's everyday lives than religious divisions.' 2 other beliefs in their significance to individuals. 6. See MILTON M. GORDON, ASSIMILATION INAMERICAN LIFE 1-7 (1964). 7. As a historical matter, religious discrimination during colonial and early postrevolutionary times bore many of the same hallmarks as racial discrimination. See discussion infra Part I.A; see also Choper, supra note 2, at 492 (pointing out that religion and race have been "the object of public (and private) stereotyping, stigma, subordination, and persecution in strikingly similar ways"); Robert A. Destro, "By What
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Sexual and Religious Identity Development Among Adolescent and Emerging Adult Sexual Minorities
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DigitalCommons@USU Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 5-2011 Sexual and Religious Identity Development Among Adolescent and Emerging Adult Sexual Minorities Angie L. Dahl Utah State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd Part of the Psychiatry and Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Dahl, Angie L., "Sexual and Religious Identity Development Among Adolescent and Emerging Adult Sexual Minorities" (2011). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 995. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/995 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SEXUAL AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AMONG ADOLESCENT AND EMERGING ADULT SEXUAL MINORITIES by Angie L. Dahl A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Psychology Approved: Renee V. Galliher, Ph.D. Gretchen Gimpel Peacock, Ph.D. Major Professor Committee Member Melanie M. Domenech Rodríguez, Ph.D. Susan Crowley, Ph.D. Committee Member Committee Member Christy Glass, Ph.D. Byron Burnham, Ed.D. Committee Member Dean of Graduate Studies UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, Utah 2011 ii Copyright © Angie L. Dahl All rights reserved iii ABSTRACT Sexual and Religious Identity Development Among Adolescent and Emerging Adult Sexual Minorities by Angie L. Dahl, Doctor of Philosophy Utah State University, 2011 Major Professor: Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Ch. 9: Proposal for Questions on Religious Identity
    339 Chapter 9 Proposal for questions on religious identity Suggested by Jaak Billiet K.U. Leuven 340 Contents 9.1 Proposal for Religious identity .................................................................... 341 9.1.1 The measurement of religion .......................................................................341 9.1.2 Summary and discussion in view of comparative survey research .......................................................................................................350 9.1.3 The measurement of religious dimensions in European surveys ........................................................................................................353 9.1.4 Proposal for the ESS questions on religious affiliation and participation ..............................................................................................365 9.2. Evaluation and improvement of the proposals......................................... 376 9.3. Final Choice...................................................................................................... 380 9.3.1. The questionnaire .......................................................................................380 9.3.2 The results in wave 1 ...................................................................................383 341 9.1 Proposal for Religious identity 9.1.1 The measurement of religion 1 Regarding the measurement of religion in survey research, one can distinguish two debates. The first discussion about the dimensions of the concept among sociologists of religion started
    [Show full text]
  • Exploratory Analysis of the Relationship Between Happiness and Religious Participation Within China
    religions Article Exploratory Analysis of the Relationship between Happiness and Religious Participation within China Tianyuan Liu 1, Lin Wu 1,*, Yang Yang 1,* and Yu Jia 2 1 School of Sociology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China; [email protected] 2 School of Journalism and Communication, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] (L.W.); [email protected] (Y.Y.) Received: 11 May 2020; Accepted: 27 July 2020; Published: 8 August 2020 Abstract: Although the positive relationship between religion and happiness has aroused heated debate, empirical studies on this are limited in the Chinese cultural context. Furthermore, there is a lack of heterogeneity analysis concerning this influence. This paper aims to address this gap in the existing literature. Using the Chinese General Social Survey data from 2015 for empirical analysis, the results show that people with religious beliefs have an increased probability of feeling very happy. This positive association does not exist in urban and eastern groups, but it still holds up in other remaining sub-samples (i.e., rural group). This study further finds that the effect of religiosity on happiness varies by different religious identification. Muslims are more likely to feel very happy compared with non-Muslims, but people of the Christian faith do not rate themselves higher on the happiness scale than non-Christians. Moreover, the results also reveal that religious involvement is significantly and positively related to happiness. Specifically, vulnerable groups are more likely to perceive themselves to be happier from continuous religious participation, whereas advantaged groups do not.
    [Show full text]
  • Negotiating and Constructing Religious Identities’
    Daniel Moulin, University of Oxford, UK [email protected] 2013 REA Annual Meeting, Nov 8-10 ‘Negotiating and constructing religious identities’ Abstract What is ‘religious identity’ and how may schooling impact upon it? In this paper, I present an elementary theory of religious identity construction and negotiation, drawing upon the theoretical framework that emerged from extensive fieldwork as part of a study of adolescent Christians, Jews and Muslims in England undertaken for my DPhil at the University of Oxford. I suggest that a conception of religious identity negotiation and construction based upon sociological and anthropological theories has much potential for educators and educational researchers. This is because to understand the impact of schooling on religious identity construction, a theory must be sensitive to social context, structural factors and power-relations – and how such phenomena may be interpreted and acted upon by individuals. In the course of this argument, I refer to important empirical and theoretical studies in comparable areas of inquiry. Introduction: conceptions of religious identity in educational research Reflecting a dichotomy in identity theory more widely, conceptions of religious identity in educational research can be separated into two principal groups: those that assume a psychological conception of identity, and those that assume an anthropological or cultural studies conception of identity. The former, (e.g. Markstrom-Adams & Smith, 1996; Hunsberger et al., 2001; Rymarz & Graham, 2006; Bertram-Troost et al., 2006, 2007; Armet, 2009), adopt concepts that centre upon religious identity development or formation as a psychological process, while the latter focus on religious identity construction as a socially located process (e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • Religion Versus Ethnicity As a Source of Mobilisation: Are There Differences?
    Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford, Mansfield Rd, OX1 3TB, UK Tel: +44 1865 281810; Fax: +44 1865 281801; http://www.crise.ox.ac.uk/ Religion versus Ethnicity as a Source of Mobilisation: are there differences? Frances Stewart CRISE WORKING PAPER No. 70 July 2009 © Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity The UK Department of International Development (DFID) supports policies, programmes and projects to promote international development. DFID provided funds for this study as part of that objective, but the views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) alone. CRISE Working Paper No. 70 Religion versus ethnicity as a source of mobilisation: are there differences? Abstract The root causes of most violent conflicts lie in economic and political factors, often horizontal inequalities of various types. Yet people are organised, united and mobilised by identities, in particular ethnic or religious ones. Most conflict analyses treat religion as a subset of ethnicity. This papers explores differences between these two identities, both by reviewing literature and by analysis of some recent surveys of perceptions in a number of conflict-affected countries. It finds many similarities in mobilisation, with both identities used instrumentally by leaders, but both ‘essentialised’ and ‘believed in’ by those who are mobilised. Yet in both cases, leaders have to cultivate the identity of those mobilised, and that of the ‘other’, to induce violence on any scale. Religious organisation and external support are often stronger than in the case of ethnicity, but there is no evidence that religious conflicts are more deadly than ethnic ones. Preliminary evidence suggests that in the many cases where both identities are present and overlapping, the identity along which mobilisation occurs is determined by demographics and according to the identity which is perceived as being used politically in the allocation of government jobs and contracts.
    [Show full text]
  • Formulations of Australian Isma'ili Muslim Identity
    Cont Islam DOI 10.1007/s11562-017-0382-x Two cultures, one identity: formulations of Australian Isma’ili Muslim identity Karim Mitha1,2,3,4 & Shelina Adatia5 & Rusi Jaspal6,7 # The Author(s) 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract The Shi’a Imami Nizari Isma’ili Muslims have often been considered the Bposter child^ for pluralistic integration (Cayo 2008). This ethos has been inculcated within members of the community, with its adherents seeing themselves as a diverse and multi-ethnic collective. Nevertheless, despite this purported pluralism, social research on the Isma’ilis has primarily focused on the diasporic and post-diasporic migrant communities of South Asian descent, the ‘first and second-generation immi- grants,’ in the Euro-American context (Mukadam and Mawani 2006, 2009; Nanji 1983, 1986). The experiences of co-religionists in other contexts have often been neglected. This study examines how members of the self-described geographically and socially isolated Isma’ili community in Australia construct their identity vis-à-vis the larger, global, Isma’ili community, and how they have responded to the potential of identity threat given the arrival of another group of Isma’ilis with a differing migratory history integrating into the extant community. Using the approach of identity process theory, this study examines how salient features of identity are constructed amongst the * Karim Mitha [email protected] 1 Edinburgh Migration, Ethnicity, and Health Research Group (EMEHRG), Centre for Population
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Identity, Religious Attendance, and Parental Control
    Rev Relig Res DOI 10.1007/s13644-014-0167-0 ORIGINAL PAPER Religious Identity, Religious Attendance, and Parental Control Young-Il Kim • W. Bradford Wilcox Received: 11 September 2013 / Accepted: 14 March 2014 Ó Religious Research Association, Inc. 2014 Abstract Using a national sample of adolescents aged 10–18 years and their parents (N = 5,117), this article examines whether parental religious identity and religious participation are associated with the ways in which parents control their children. We hypothesize that both religious orthodoxy and weekly religious attendance are related to heightened levels of three elements of parental control: monitoring activities, normative regulations, and network closure. Results indicate that an orthodox religious identity for Catholic and Protestant parents and higher levels of religious attendance for parents as a whole are associated with increases in monitoring activities and normative regulations of American adolescents. Keywords Religious identity Á Religious attendance Á Parenting Á Parental control Introduction The last two decades have witnessed renewed scholarly interest in the relationship between religion and parenting (for a recent review, see Mahoney 2010). One of the questions that has emerged out of this growing literature is whether religion is related to parenting in a uniform way or whether a particular religious culture is linked to distinctive patterns in parental values and practices (Wilcox et al. 2004). Previous research has largely yielded evidence for the relative importance of generic Y. Kim (&) Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97236, Waco, TX 76798-7236, USA e-mail: [email protected] W. B. Wilcox Department of Sociology, University of Virginia, P.O.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study of the Relationship Between Racial and Religious Identities
    A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RACIAL AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITIES A dissertation submitted to Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Anisi Daniels Smith May 2018 © Copyright All rights reserved Except for previously published materials Dissertation written by Anisi Daniels Smith B.A., Kent State University, 2002 M.A., Kent State University, 2007 Ph.D., Kent State University, 2018 Approved by Dr. Richard T. Serpe, Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Dr. Nicole Rousseau, Members, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Dr. Jerry M. Lewis_ Dr. Amoaba Gooden Accepted by Dr. Richard T. Serpe, Chair, Department of Sociology Dr. James L. Blank, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………………….iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………..v CHAPTERS Page 1 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………1 2 LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………………….4 Identity Theory…………………………………………………………………….5 Types of Social Structures………………………………………………………..12 Religion, Practice, and Identity…………………………………………………..15 Race and Identity…………………………………………………………………19 3 METHODS AND DATA………………………………………………………...28 Table 1……………………………………………………………………………29 Model 1…………………………………………………………………………..31 Exogenous Variables…………………………………………………………….31 Endogenous Variables…………………………………………………………...32 4 MODEL 1 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS……………………………………….38 Table 2…………………………………………………………………………...39 Exogenous Variables…………………………………………………………….39 Endogenous Variables…………………………………………………………...40 Summary…………………………………………………………………………41
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Identity and Religious Belief: the Subconscious Religiosity of Chinese University Students
    DePauw University Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University Student research Student Work 4-2020 Religious Identity and Religious Belief: The Subconscious Religiosity of Chinese University Students Margot Leiner DePauw University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.depauw.edu/studentresearch Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Leiner, Margot, "Religious Identity and Religious Belief: The Subconscious Religiosity of Chinese University Students" (2020). Student research. 147. https://scholarship.depauw.edu/studentresearch/147 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student research by an authorized administrator of Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Religious Identity and Religious Belief: The Subconscious Religiosity of Chinese University Students By: Margot Leiner Class of 2020 In partial fulfillment of the DePauw University Honor Scholar Program Primary Thesis Sponsor: Jason Fuller Committee Members: Sherry Mou and Yung-Chen Chiang 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the people in my life who have constantly supported my path as a Chinese Studies maJor and Honor Scholar. This project would not have been possible if I had not been surrounded by faculty, family, and friends that encourage me every day. I want to thank my parents for instilling and supporting my dreams of traveling to and living in Chinese speaking regions. Without their support, I would not be where I am today. Since I decided I wanted to take Chinese in 6th grade, they have reminded me that there is a great big world out there, and I am meant to discover it.
    [Show full text]
  • The Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities: the Albanian Situation Albert Doja
    The Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities: The Albanian Situation Albert Doja To cite this version: Albert Doja. The Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities: The Albanian Situation. Cri- tique of Anthropology, SAGE Publications, 2000, 20 (4), pp.421-438. 10.1177/0308275X0002000404. halshs-00406257 HAL Id: halshs-00406257 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00406257 Submitted on 12 Jul 2012 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 05 Doja (jr/d) 2/11/00 8:49 am Page 421 Article The Politics of Religion in the Reconstruction of Identities The Albanian Situation Albert Doja Department of Social Anthropology, University of Hull Translated by Angela McLachlan Abstract Ⅲ In order to appreciate the very historical significance of the succes- sive processes of conversion and reconversion among Albanians and other Southeast European populations, and to subject them to a more effective anthropological analysis, this article argues that they should be understood in terms of the dynamics of objectification and resistance against pressures exerted by authorities holding political and religious power. This approach allows us to put the meaning of religious affiliations into the perspective of negotiation and redefinition of social identities, leading to the transformation of Albanian iden- tity and ethnicity, and re-establishing traditions of political, social and national history.
    [Show full text]
  • Islam in Australia: a National Survey of Muslim Australian Citizens and Permanent Residents
    religions Article Islam in Australia: A National Survey of Muslim Australian Citizens and Permanent Residents Halim Rane 1,* , Adis Duderija 2, Riyad H. Rahimullah 3, Paul Mitchell 1, Jessica Mamone 1 and Shane Satterley 2 1 Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia; paul.mitchell@griffith.edu.au (P.M.); j.mamone@griffith.edu.au (J.M.) 2 School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia; a.duderija@griffith.edu.au (A.D.); shane.satterley@griffithuni.edu.au (S.S.) 3 School of Human Services and Social Work, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia; [email protected] * Correspondence: h.rane@griffith.edu.au Received: 27 July 2020; Accepted: 11 August 2020; Published: 14 August 2020 Abstract: This article presents the findings of a national survey on Islam in Australia based on responses of 1034 Muslim Australian citizens and permanent residents. Knowing what Muslim Australians think about Islam in relation to Australian society is essential for a more informed understanding about Islam and Muslims needed to address misinformation, Islamophobia, and extremism. The findings presented in this article include typologies of Muslims; sources of influence concerning Islam; interpretations of the Qur’an; perspectives on ethical, social, and theological issues; issues of concern; social connections and sense of belonging; views on various Muslim-majority countries; and perspectives concerning political Islam, including jihad, caliphate, and shariah. While respondents’ understandings, interpretations, and expressions of Islam overall align with values and principles of equality, human rights, social cohesion, and social justice, a minority were found to understand and interpret Islam in ways that reflect the influence of late 20th and early 21st century ideas associated with Islamist political ideology, and a smaller sub-group were found to have views that could be considered extreme.
    [Show full text]
  • Becoming Muslim: the Development of a Religious Identity Author(S): Lori Peek Source: Sociology of Religion , Autumn, 2005, Vol
    Becoming Muslim: The Development of a Religious Identity Author(s): Lori Peek Source: Sociology of Religion , Autumn, 2005, Vol. 66, No. 3 (Autumn, 2005), pp. 215-242 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/4153097 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Oxford University Press and Association for the Sociology of Religion, Inc. are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Sociology of Religion This content downloaded from 132.174.250.143 on Fri, 14 Aug 2020 21:51:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Sociology of Religion 2005, 66:3 215-242 Becoming Muslim: The Development of a Religious Identity Lori Peek* Colorado State University This study explores the process of religious identity formation and examines the emergence of reli- gion as the most salient source of personal and social identity for a group of second-generation Muslim Americans. Drawing on data gathered through participant observation, focus groups, and individual interviews with Muslim university students in New York and Colorado, three stages of religious iden- tity development are presented: religion as ascribed identity; religion as chosen identity; and religion as declared identity.
    [Show full text]