Sustaining Faith Traditions: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion among the Latino and Asian American Second Generation

3. Islam Is to Catholicism as Teflon Is to Velcro: Religion and Culture among Muslims and Latinas

46 > 47 The chapter begins with a brief account of the Youth and Religion Project ’s (YRP) research agenda, before zeroing in on the two focus groups. Before theorizing the focus group data, we argue that the participants express discourses that are widespread in their respective communities. Then we show how two theoretical statements, Smelser on ambivalence (1998) and Yang and Ebaugh on immigrant religion (2001a, 2001b), help make sense of the two discourses. We conclude with a summary of our theoretical retrodictions and thoughts on some implications and limitations of our analysis. The YRP Focus Groups The research reported here is part of a larger project concerning the ways in which religious participation and identification affect the development of youth in the United States, especially ethnic and religious minorities. Our research began with students at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and then moved outward into religious institutions and families in the communities that send students to UIC, one of the most diverse student bodies in the United States. One of our first tasks was to learn what we could about the “cultural stories” (Peterman 1996) that are told in the various religio-ethnic communities that we intended to study. To find windows on these communities, we were particularly interested in learning about the way that students in two of the most visible and active student populations on campus—Latino/as and Muslims—would talk about the place of religion in their lives. Toward that end, we conducted focus groups, identified by gender, race, ethnicity, and religious background.2 A professional focus group leader served as moderator and assisted in designing the discussion guide. The group discussions, all conducted in English, were taperecorded and transcribed for later analysis. Generating lively discussions, they ran for 60 to 90 minutes. Participants were asked about the role of religion in their family life while growing up, including involvement in worship, youth groups, choir, camps, and other religious activities; the current role of religion in their lives, especially their religious participation, if any, while in college; how they perceive religion as affecting attitudes, personal relationships, and the development of skills; and a global assessment of positive and negative aspects of religion in their lives. Participants were steered away from disputing each other’s religious commitments and encouraged instead to discuss their personal experiences with their respective religions. It is to their stories that we now turn. 48 > 49 after characterizing her upbringing as more cultural than religious, said of herself and her sister, “But as we grew up, we started to look and search on our own,” and they came to identify more with the religion. Layla, who was sent to an Islamic school beginning in the sixth grade, said she found religion on her own. “Religion didn’t come into my home until I started accepting the religion and started learning. Then my parents started practicing and my brothers and sisters kind of too.” Only when the family began to observe religious practices did she realize that as Muslims they had their own special holidays and did not need Christmas; this recognition freed her from envying the neighbors and gave her an experience of autonomy. Noticing that four of these women wore a head covering—the hijab—and the others did not, the moderator asked the women how they felt about this matter, and they spoke about it in terms of the same theme of adult autonomy . Layla, the Palestinian, said that the decision to wear hijab was hers alone; her mother’s generation did not cover. “When I did start wearing it, everyone in my family discouraged it, because I was very young and stubborn . So I kept it on. I believed in it. I had learned about the religion. My parents didn’t really teach me ‘you have to cover, you have to do that,’ so when I learned about it, I accepted it. As I got older, I got to understand it more.” Another of the Indian women spoke in similar terms: “It wasn’t really taught to me. My mom doesn’t wear it, my grandma doesn’t wear it. No one wears it. But I found out. I researched, I talked to people. Just one day it hit me, and I decided to wear it.” She added that the hijab prevents her “from being taken as an object” and allows her “to be taken...