The age old issue you always hear about, but are things changing?
I'm doing my dissertation on British Asian Muslims, and how dual cultural influences contribute to ones identity and practice of Islam. I wanted to find out what defines the British Muslim Identity, but also what young people feel the conflicts are between them and their parents generation due to cultural differences (and sometimes culture vs Islam issues).
The examples I gave of potential issues of conflict (or difference of opinion between generations) to discuss were hijab/styles of clothing, (higher) education, the marriage process/choosing a spouse/cultural practices at weddings, and community activism/ISoc/dawah work.
I also asked them, if they did not feel that it applied to them, to answer in general terms of what they feel is true for the majority in their community
Of the people I interviewed so far, I got the impression that for some people while there are still many issues, its something that is in the process of slowly changing for the better, as each person mentioned at least one thing that they felt was not a source of disagreement, but on the other hand there were a few that felt that most things were not a cause of disagreement anymore (but implied that they understood these issues have existed in the recent past).
SO...what I wanted to ask the revival board members opinions on are:
1)Why is it that for some communities these issues are begginning to change slowly, while for others they have already changed a lot? What do you feel the underlying factors may be, and are things getting better overall, or does it depend on the particular community, and environment?
2)Do you personally feel that Culture vs Islam is a prevalent issue and a cause of disagreement between generations? If so what are some examples of this?
(PS, sorry for the exceedingly long post, its research, please help me out iA! JazakAllahu khair!)
Just to clarify, the sorts of points people raised around the issues were to do with some of the following
Education – this could refer to difference in preferences for certain career-paths/ non- encouragement or lack of enthusiasm to pursue higher education/ excessive pressure to pursue education for material or other reasons/difference of opinion on whether education is important for women
The marriage process/choosing a spouse- (e.g.) are there difference of opinion on criteria of what you or your parents look for in a spouse/ issues of preference for own ethnicity/ how much of the process or decision is down to you or the family/ Cultural practices at weddings and Islamic permissibility of them.
Hijab/clothing (e.g.) is there difference for preference of type of clothing- aisan/western/Arabic “muslim” clothing/ are there different understandings of what constitutes hijab.
Community activism/isoc/dawah work/voluntary community work – e.g. are there differences of opinion between generations on the importance or necessity of this/ do your parents encourage you to do it/ if you are involved in such things, why/ are there restrictions placed on females moreso than males in being involved with such things?
As for the first question I asked, an example is that one interviewee felt that in families where there is not a history of education, and they are working class, education is not encouraged at all neither for male or female children.
Another interviewee mentioned that she felt Bengali families are generally more strict with allowing their daughters to do things (as she felt her Pakistani counterparts seemed to have more freedom), but also highlighted that this is also more of an issue in areas where there is not a sense of 'strong Muslim community', so the parents are more fearful or wary of allowing the daughter more freedom (e.g parents would prefer that she wasnt involved with isoc/community work etc and activities outside the home that the parent did not feel was necessary, and would not allow her to go to day long conferences/meetings that were not close by)- partly because the parent has not seen many other people in the community (esp girls) doing so.
Some mentioned that Islam vs Culture is less of an issue now because of avalaibilty of education, resources, lectures, halaqas etc- however others said that there will still be issues because of language barriers, and older people being set in their ways and not accepting younger people telling them whats right and whats wrong.
Some feel that even for those of the older generation who dont want to change, some changes of opinion, and acceptance of new ideas will occur because across the UK there is an emergence of a British Muslim identity and young people fusing their Islamic identity with western culture, and because it is happening within a lot of families across the Asian Muslim community, things are accepted because they eventually become a norm- i.e, culturally strict parents only accept changes if they see a lot of other Asian parents accepting it- but caring what the community think is too much a deciding factor in what they find acceptable or not, and young people feel that this is not fair.
(I hope that all made some sort of sense somehow(!)) :doubt:
I'm beginning to think theres farrrr to many variables at play and I should have narrowed my topic down further...yikes. Oh well, too late now...!)
Also any general, relevant comments and ideas would be appreciated iA, even if not answering my (wordy) questions!!
JazakAllahu Khair.
Culture is not a problem UNLESS t acts are counter to Islam.
The first Ismic culture was the culture of the ara aftr stripping it of haraam acts. Whereever Islam spread, the people were not required to abandon rtheir culture except for practices that were unislamic.
Culture and Islam are not mutually exclusive.
As for some comunities changing faster or slower than others, everyone has their own pace and the anges should be judged per change. To see if it is good or bad.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
I agree. I've mentioned that earlier on in my dissertation, the whole 'If We had wished, we would have created you from a single community", and that 'we have created you from different tribes so that you may know each other', and that God created us diverse for a reason and it's to be respected, that Islam is for all people of all times.
That being said, in the Asian community, at least in the recent past, there has been an awareness among the younger generation, of issues with (some, or a lot of) cultural practices conflicting with Islam, to the point that the older generation may consider the cultural practice necessary and a part of Islam. An example one interviewee gave is that in the bengali community, it is common that when one gives salaam to someone elderly, or especially on eid, it is expected for the younger person to touch the feet of the older person as a form of saying salaam (instead of actually saying it in words). This is neither from fardh, or sunnah, but the older generation treat it as necessary. However, it is not from culture alone either as this resembles the Hindu practice of touching the feet (as a form of asking for blessing). So when I was talking about change I meant the change of people becoming more aware about what cultural practices conflict with Islam and changing this, which is a good change, but was wondering why for some it is happening faster than others.
So it's not by any means about rejection of all culture (which I think is the other extreme of the problem).
Great topic Shah. What is interesting to me as a non-Muslim is the way culture and Islam are separate. For instance, we hear about parents forcing a muslimah into a certain marriage, but then fundamentalist Muslims stating that this is a cultural practice which is not allowed under Islam as muslimahs have a right to agree or disagree to a proposed husband. It is vital for an understanding of Muslims that non-Muslims separate Muslim culture from Islam. Perhaps you could find out more about the fine line between the Islamic rulings on women and the various Muslim cultural perspectives on women.