Young Muslims, Identities, and Recognition: Reactions to Politicized Media Discourses

• In Event: 31.077 - Challenging Extremism? Education for Justice and Peace in a World of Competing Ideologies

Abstract

Young Muslims, especially since the 9/11 New York terror in 2001, have had to react to critical views disseminated in the media. In particular, they have has to respond to media labelling as “extremists”. This presentation investigates the influence of media discourse on identity construction for young British Muslims. It also discusses their views on social integration.
In Western countries, Muslim communities have figured prominently in public debates on security and identity. The media sensationally report incidents featuring Muslims generating fears on the rise of Islamism as a threat to democratic Western culture and values. The so-called Trojan horse plot in Birmingham, UK is the latest example. Some young Muslims react to such political and media discourses by embracing anti-liberal identities.
Identity is a complex phenomenon, which is personally and socially constructed as a selective response to one’s social milieu (Giddens, 1991). Identity requires recognition from others (Taylor, 1994) and involves managing the relationship between pursuing an ideal self-image and earning social approval.
The data for this presentation came from three interview-based studies conducted in Coventry and London in 2009, 2012-13 and 2014. It involved one-on-one or group interviews with a total of 68 British Muslims, aged 17 to 40 years; 51 were female and 17 were male. A discourse analysis of the data revealed patterns, repetitions and shared meanings.
The research revealed that the way informants talked about identity was strongly affected by public discourses about Muslim communities. Hence it was common among participants to differentiate Islam from ethnic culture and to attribute undemocratic practices, such as forced marriage and polygamy, which are often raised in the media, to cultural conventions, and not to Islam. Media reports caused great frustration among informants, partly due to misrepresentations of Muslim communities and partly due to their sense of powerlessness, namely that they feel unable to influence public discussions of their communities. This may explain the attraction for some of more radical Islamist views.
The results have implications for educational practices. Greater attention needs to be given to questions of peacebuilding and social cohesion across religious and ethnic divides. Given Islamophobic social and political environments, and the tendency within the media to portray Muslim identities as essentialised and singular, schools need to provide all children, both Muslims and non-Muslims, with educational programs which promote a positive understanding of Islam. Children need resilience against stereotypical views on Muslims, for which support should be provided through subjects such as religious education and citizenship, as well as whole school policies (Revell, 2012).

Giddens, A. (1994). Living in a Post-Traditional Society, in U. Beck, A. Giddens, and S. Lash, Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Revell, L. (2012). Islam and Education: The Emancipation and Misrepresentation of a Religion, Stoke-on-Trent, Trentham.
Taylor, C, (1994). The Politics of Recognition, in A. Gutmann, (Ed.), Multiculturalism and the ‘Politics of Recognition’, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Author

• Satoshi Adachi, Institute of Education - London