The Religious Identity Perception of the Egyptian Muslim Diaspora in the West: A Case Study of Postgraduate Students

Abstract

Egyptian Muslim postgraduate students carry their identities, memories, and affiliations with them when moving from an Islamic country to a Western country and face many challenges in re-identifying and representing themselves in their new context of living in the diaspora. This research investigates how postgraduate students living in the Egyptian Muslims Diaspora perceive their religious identity using qualitative methodology, in order to understand the nature of Muslim identity in relation to mobility and space. This study finds that participants perceive their religious identity as an individual characteristic, rather than a social one and previous experiences in the homeland greatly affect their sense of belonging. Participants also express their belonging to a spiritual territory, rather than a spatial one. The sense of estrangement that the participants experience living abroad provide them with a positive perception and appreciation of their own religious identity. Additionally, the participants express the fear of dynamism in their religious identity while living in the diaspora and they emphasize holding on to the fundamentals as their personal identity, while highlighting the decrease in their practice, justified by the absence of their social religious community.