Fatima Malik
St Mary’s Senior High School
High Distinction
 ‘A Clash of Civilisations?’

Islamic practice has also been highly associated with cultural accretions, and culture very often dictates gender roles and result in associated dogmas. Practice of Islam is often associated with retaining Pakistani, Indian, Turkish or Arabic identity. When looking at migration and minority status, the social organisation of religion seem to be modified as a part of the migration and resettlement, often through formation of worship and associations. Often this includes an attempt to replicate an old ethnic religious community in a new setting.   Therefore in an effort to retain culture heritage according to Ahmet Icduygu there is an increase in conservatism and of religiousness after immigration. : ‘My parents aren’t very religious…The mosque is more a social place for them (her parents), where they can meet up with their friends’. As Steven Vertovec points out, religious and other social dynamics developed distinctly within the realms of, migration, minority status and Diaspora involve the dynamics of religious transformation. In this sense the mosque becomes a place of social anchoring where migrants can meet those with similar backgrounds and values. The mosque comes to have its own social values and hierarchy’s which determine socially acceptable behaviour and ideas on gender roles: ‘It is a whole world which you can’t understand unless you’re…Muslim’.