Muslim Ritual Practices and their Multilayered Messages in a Non-Muslim Environment: Examples from the Dutch Context

Abstract

Many Muslims in the Netherlands want to live according to the prescriptions of their religion, but are trying at the same time to accommodate themselves to Dutch society in everyday life. Accommodation also seems to occur in the area of Muslim ritual practices, even though most orthodox and orthoprax Muslims are convinced of the 'unchangeability' of Islamic rituals. The study of Islamic rituals and changes in them in a non-Muslim Western environment have therefore become very popular among Western researchers. Most studies have focused on the relation between ritual, social cohesion and group identity. By focusing on certain Muslim ritual practices in the mon-Muslim environment of the Netherlands, this article draws attention to the role of ritual as an expression of faith on part of the individual beliver, thus stressing the multilayered messages conveyed by ritual practices.