British-born Muslims replaced ancestral ethnicity with religious identity

Evidence

As Muslim communities grew in numbers and social and familial networks began to emerge, so a first generation of British-born Muslims duly emerged that grew up to identify themselves in quite different ways to their parents. For many, especially in the second and subsequent generations, the country of ancestral heritage was attributed much less emotional or cultural meaning. For many today, ancestral heritage constitutes little more than one facet of increasingly hybridised identity. But most relevant for the purposes of understanding the context within which Khan identifies, for these British-born Muslims the role and prominence of their religion – Islam – became increasingly important. Bhikhu Parekh voices this point with some clarity: ‘While the parents would have said that they were Muslims, their offspring say that they have a Muslim or Islamic identity …’ adding, ’… the difference is deep and striking’. Socially therefore a transformation was occurring which saw a shift away from a homogenous ‘Asian’ identity to a newer and more prominent ‘Muslim’ equivalent. — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 51

Categorization

• XREF: Identity hybridization echoes the reader’s interest in how group labels become politically operative — parallels the ‘political blackness’ critique later in this chapter. — connects to: British Muslims were ethnicized before being recognized as a faith group — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 185; Census ethnicity categories poorly capture British Muslim experience as proxies — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us…, 112; Religious identity grew more salient than ethnicity among later-generation British Muslims — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us…, 182 (+7 more)

Related

• Second-generation British Muslims replaced heritage labels with Islamic identity (similarity 0.94)
• Religious identity grew more salient than ethnicity among later-generation British Muslims (similarity 0.87)
• British Muslims were ethnicized before being recognized as a faith group (similarity 0.84)
• The racialized content of the Muslim category persisted across changing labels (similarity 0.83)
• Muslim migrants were initially subsumed under the hegemonic ‘Asian’ label (similarity 0.83)
• Muslim identity cannot be reduced to religion alone (similarity 0.82)
• Religious identity racializes Arab and South Asian Muslims along shared lines (similarity 0.82)
• British Muslims are a diverse minority diaspora, not a monolith (similarity 0.82)
• British racial categories for Muslims changed labels while retaining racist content. (similarity 0.81)
• Muslims get racialized via projected religious ancestry regardless of self-understanding (similarity 0.81)
• Suspicion of Britain’s Muslims predates modern biological racism (similarity 0.81)
• Scholars moved from ethnic to religious penalties to explain Muslim disadvantage (similarity 0.80)
• Muslims suffer hostility for perceived identity beyond any voluntary religious choice. (similarity 0.80)
• Muslim identity functions as a civic marker rather than mere religious belief. (similarity 0.80)
• Religious and ethnic disadvantages in Britain must be separated analytically to explain Muslim outcomes. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Religious identity racializes Arab and South Asian Muslims along shared lines #corroborates (0.85)
• Arab and South Asian identities have been conflated with Islam #corroborates (0.82) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 173
• Orientalism converted Muslim identity from a religion into a race. #qualifies (0.78) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 161
• Religious identity replaced ethnicity as the marker making Muslim Americans seen as anti-American #corroborates (0.75)
• Muslim religious identity becomes a racial category through surveillance. #responds-to (0.72)