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Keeping Faith: an exploration of Welsh Muslim Identity

Gilliat-Ray, Sophie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8320-6853 2021. Keeping Faith: an exploration of Welsh Muslim Identity. Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 32 (3) , pp. 307-328. 10.1080/09596410.2021.1934292

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Abstract

This paper contributes to research about Muslim communities in Wales (Gilliat-Ray and Mellor 2010; Mellor and Gilliat-Ray 2013), by exploring some of the ways in which Muslims identify with Wales and have brought their faith and traditions into conversation with Welsh cultural, religious, and civic life. This occurs through strategic use of the Welsh language, especially on occasions that ‘celebrate the nation’, recognition and identification with features of the landscape and geography of Wales, and the continuity of leadership of Muslim communities. In addition, the vibrancy of Welsh Muslim institutions suggests that they have a significant role to play in the contemporary religious landscape of Wales. I suggest that they are responsible for sustaining some of the characteristic features of historic Welsh religious culture, in a context where the main denominations of the Christian churches are struggling to maintain active congregations. The energy and activism of Welsh Muslims suggests that they are taking on some responsibility for ‘keeping faith’ in Wales and creating new postsecular spaces and practices in the urban public sphere that engage in a dialogical and reflexive relationship with aspects of Welsh tradition.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: History, Archaeology and Religion
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISSN: 0959-6410
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 5 July 2021
Date of Acceptance: 19 May 2021
Last Modified: 06 Nov 2023 19:36
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/142212

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