The Religious Identity of Rohingya Refugees in Malaysia

Nur Nadia Lukmanulhakim, Mohd Al Adib bin Samuri

Abstract


This paper explores the role of religious identity in the experiences of Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. It explores how their religious identity shapes their social engagement, coping mechanisms, and integration approaches. In contrast to focusing solely on race, this study underscores the significance of religion, especially in a Muslim-majority country like Malaysia, where Rohingya seek refuge from religious persecution while upholding their faith. Through qualitative analysis, the paper examines post-migration challenges faced by Rohingya refugees in integrating with the host community and maintaining their religious identity. Despite sharing the Islamic faith with many Malaysians, Rohingya encounter difficulties in integration and often feel marginalized. They establish community-centric spaces to preserve their religious practices and cultural heritage. This research underscores the complex interaction between religious identity and social integration among Muslim refugees in Muslim-majority countries, offering crucial insights that will inform integration policies and interventions.


Keywords


Rohingya; Refugee; Religious Identity; Migration; Malaysia

Full Text:

PDF

References


Al‐Ahsan, Abdullah. 1986. “The Quranic Concept of Ummah.” Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs. Journal 7 (2): 606–16.

Alam, Jobair. 2018. “The Rohingya of Myanmar: Theoretical Significance of the Minority Status.” Asian Ethnicity 19 (2): 180–210.

Azis, Avyanthi. 2014. “Urban Refugees in a Graduated Sovereignty: The Experiences of the Stateless Rohingya in the Klang Valley.” Citizenship Studies 18 (8): 839–54.

Bakar, Osman. 2012. “The Qur’anic Identity of the Muslim Ummah: Tawhidic Epistemology as Its Foundation and Sustainer.” ICR Journal 3 (3): 438–54.

Bankier-Karp, Adina Leah. 2022. “Catalysts of Connectedness: A Case for Greater Complexity in Religious Identity Formation Research.” Review of Religious Research 64 (2): 343–73.

Burwell, Ronald J., Peter Hill, and John F. Van Wicklin. 1986. “Religion and Refugee Resettlement in the United States: A Research Note.” Review of Religious Research 27 (4): 356–66.

Creswell, John W., and David J. Creswell. 2018. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Method Approaches. Fifth. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications.

Di Lorenzo Pires, Guilherme, and Danny Zahreddine. 2021. “Religious Identities versus National Identity: An Assessment of the Views of Syrian Refugees in Brazil about National Identity Consciousness | Identidades Religiosas versus Identidade Nacional: Uma Avaliação Sa Visão Dos Refugiados Sírios No Brasil Sobre a Consciência de Identidade Nacional.” Mural Internacional 12 (0): 60441.

Dorais, Louis Jacques. 2007. “Faith, Hope and Identity: Religion and the Vietnamese Refugees.” Refugee Survey Quarterly 26 (2): 57–68.

Ennis, S. 2011. Religion, Spirituality, and the Refugee Experience. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Faruqi, Al, and J. Maysam. 2005. “Umma: The Orientalists and the QurʾĀnic Concept of Identity.” Journal of Islamic Studies 16(1): 1–34.

Fischer, Peter, Amy L. Ai, Nilüfer Aydin, Dieter Frey, and S. Alexander Haslam. 2010. “The Relationship between Religious Identity and Preferred Coping Strategies: An Examination of the Relative Importance of Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Coping in Muslim and Christian Faiths.” Review of General Psychology: Journal of Division 1, of the American Psychological Association 14(4): 365–81.

Hasan, Nabiha, Diane B. Mitschke, and Kristen E. Ravi. 2018. “Exploring the Role of Faith in Resettlement among Muslim Syrian Refugees.” Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought 37(3): 223–38.

Hoskins, Janet Alison. 2015. “What Is a Refugee Religion? Exile, Exodus, and Emigration in the Vietnamese Diaspora.” In Building Noah’s Ark for Migrants, Refugees, and Religious Communities. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Islam, Md Saiful, and Ali Şahi̇n. 2023. “Impact of Forcibly Displaced People’s Identity Crisis on Host State’s Security: The Case of Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh.” Saudi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 8(04): 80–91.

Islam, Mohammad. 2020. “Rohingya Refugees: Implications of the Right to Return and the Right to Remain.” SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3711449.

Jung, Jin-Heon. 2020. “Crossing and Conversion among North Korean Refugee-Migrants.” Religions 11(10): 510.

Kipgen, Nehginpao. 2019. “The Rohingya Crisis: The Centrality of Identity and Citizenship.” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 39 (1): 61–74.

Leider, Jacques. 2018. “Rohingya: The History of a Muslim Identity in Myanmar.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. Oxford University Press.

Muratkhan, Makhmet, Yerzhan Kalmakhan, Imamumadi Tussufkhan, Akimkhanov Askar, and Okan Samet. 2021. “The Importance of Religious Education in Consolidating Kazakh Identity in China: An Historical Approach.” Religious Education 116 (5): 521–30.

Muruthi, Bertranna A., Savannah S. Young, Jessica Chou, Emily Janes, and Maliha Ibrahim. 2020. “‘We Pray as a Family’: The Role of Religion for Resettled Karen Refugees.” Journal of Family Issues 41 (10): 1723–41.

Nagel, Alexander-Kenneth. 2023. “‘I Was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me’. The Role of Religion and Faith-Based Organizations in Refugee Accommodation.” Interdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society 9 (1): 251–75.

Oda, Yoshiko. 1984. “The Concept of the ‘Ummah’ in the Qur’an.” Orient 20: 93–108.

Peek, Lori. 2005. “Becoming Muslim: The Development of a Religious Identity.” Sociology of Religion 66 (3): 215–42.

Radford, David, and Heidi Hetz. 2021. “Aussies? Afghans? Hazara Refugees and Migrants Negotiating Multiple Identities and Belonging in Australia.” Social Identities 27 (3): 377–93.

Rebolledo, Olga. 2019. “Rituals and Healing Ceremonies Help to Promote Psychosocial Wellbeing by Increasing Sense of Identity and Community in Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh.” Intervention (Amstelveen, Netherlands) 17 (2): 278.

Rivas, Ricardo, and Michael Gibson-Light. 2016. “Exploring Culture through In-Depth Interviews: Is It Useful to Ask People about What They Think, Mean, and Do ?” Cinta Moebio 57: 316–29.

Şafak-AyvazoĞlu, Ayşe, Filiz KünüroĞlu, Fons Van de Vijver, and Kutlay YaĞmur. 2021. “Acculturation of Syrian Refugees in the Netherlands: Religion as Social Identity and Boundary Marker.” Journal of Refugee Studies 34 (1): 555–78.

Samuri, Mohd Al Adib, and Peter Hopkins. 2023. “Navigating ‘Purdah’ Culture in Urban Space: The Restricted Lives of Young Married Rohingya Refugees in Malaysia.” In Refugee Youth, 81–99. Bristol: Bristol University Press.

Sanchez Bean, María Celeste. 2021. “Women Who Dare: Exploring Experiences of Participation among Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh,” Refugee Law Initiative School of Advanced Study University of London 55.

Subedi, D. B., and Johanna Garnett. 2020. “De-Mystifying Buddhist Religious Extremism in Myanmar: Confrontation and Contestation around Religion, Development and State-Building.” Conflict, Security & Development 20 (2): 223–46.

Wakefield, Juliet R. H., Mhairi Bowe, Blerina Kёllezi, Lydia J. Harkin, Charles W. Baker, and Ardiana Shala. 2023. “‘I Knew I Needed to Live What I Realised Was Faith in Me’: Enacting and Transcending Religious Identity through Food Aid Volunteering.” European Journal of Social Psychology 54: 265–281. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3012.

Wildan, Muhammad. 2021. “The Persecution of Rohingya Muslims and the Path to Democratization in Myanmar.” Studia Islamika 28 (1): 29–52.

Wu, Stephen, Stephen Ellingson, Paul Hagstrom, and Jaime Kucinskas. 2021. “Religion and Refugee Well‐being: The Importance of Inclusive Community.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 60 (2): 291–308.

Younis, Tarek, and Ghayda Hassan. 2019. “‘I Know What a Muslim Really Is’: How Political Context Predisposes the Perceived Need for an Objective Muslim Identity.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 34 (1): 1–19.

Yusuf, Imtiyaz. 2018. “Three Faces of the Rohingya Crisis: Religious Nationalism, Asian Islamophobia, and Delegitimizing Citizenship.” Studia Islamika 25 (3): 503–41.

Zine, Jasmin. 2001. “Muslim Youth in Canadian Schools: Education and the Politics of Religious Identity.” Anthropology & Education Quarterly 32 (4): 399–423.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.36712/sdi.v30i3.32095 Abstract - 0 PDF - 0

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
All publication by Studia Islamika are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Studia Islamika, ISSN: 0215-0492, e-ISSN: 2355-6145

View My Stats