Are Arabic Muslim Families Able to Maintain Arabic Muslim Identity in Their Second Generation?

Abstract

Arab Muslims make up a significant constituent of the multicultural community in the United Kingdom. Living as a religious minority in a largely Christian culture places them under pressure with regard to practising and maintaining their Arabic and Islamic identities. Their experience of living in the UK as immigrants has been remarkably under-studied. Particularly, second-generation identity formation and the tensions which ensue due to the experience of living between cultures deserve academic attention. This study aimed to fill in this gap with an attempt to investigate whether the first generation of Arab Muslims is able to transmit their cultural identity to their second-generation youth. Its findings indicate that parent Arab Muslim immigrants are relatively able to transmit their cultural traits to their offspring. The parents who participated in the study perceived culture to be centred on the religion of Islam. These parents wanted to see their youth practising and adhering to aspects of Islamic worship, such as reading the Quran and visiting the mosque. However, the second generation exhibited ambivalence regarding both the Arab-Islamic culture and the British culture. They developed hybrid identities in which they defined themselves as British but maintained some aspects of their parents’ Arabic and Islamic identity.