Muslim Identity in the era of globalization: Formation of new Muslim identities

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Sociology - Religion, grade: 1,7, University of Applied Sciences Fulda, language: English, abstract: Constructing an identity today is complicated by the nature of our postmodern world we live in but more significant than ever. For most people it is very important to identify oneself with at least one aspect like nationality, ethnicity or religion. Identity could determine the position which one has in society, depending on the country one live in. Finding one’s identity can be very challenging. Many people struggle with the notion of their identity, especially minority groups like Muslims living in the Secular World asking themselves Who am I? Moreover the globalization led to significant changes in the Islamic world and within an Identity crisis. In this paper I will focus on the following questions: What is the link between Islam and identity? What exactly is a Muslim Identity? As Muslims are coming from different countries, ethnics and different groups (Sunnis, Shiites and so on) can we talk about Muslims as a collective group or is there a Global Muslim Identity? And when how is this type of identity created?