Globalization, Americanization and British Muslim Identity

Book excerpt: This is the first empirical study to explore the impact of globalisation upon the construction of Muslim identity in the West, in particular in Britain. Drawing on a number of theoretical models, the book examines the way in which globalisation generates paradoxically two parallel processes: homogenisation and heterogenisation. The former process is chiefly characterised by increasing westernisation, while the latter is observable in the different forms that Islamic 'resistance' has taken in Muslim societies worldwide. By examining second generation young adults born in the UK or migrant Muslim parents and the extent to which the western 'global cultural industry' has influenced their identity the study suggests that through the process of heterogenisation cultural forms have become diversified and fragmented, and identity construction diffused.