The Notion of Identity in Bowen. Morales and Cook

[shirin_najafian]

Reading these three texts, I was thinking about the notion of self and identitywhich were to some extent shared among these three readings. In Bowen's article we have the religious adaptation as and self-definition in the continuum of early encounter with Islam to the time they had their own communities. Thinking of self-definition which is brought up in Bowen's text, I wanted to trace that in our other readings. In Morale's reading, I encountered the role of dawa and its role in shaping the Latino Muslim identity. In Cook's article, the dynamics behind the religious identity was interesting to me. The fact that at this point, the religious identity is no more a personal belief but it has entered the realm of a politicized category under the surveillance of the state.