'Living in-between' : the multiple integration trajectories of the London Indonesian Muslim immigrants

• Main Author: Wardana, Amika
• Published: University of Essex 2013
• Subjects: 305.906912
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.605575

The thesis examines the complex process of integration of Indonesian Muslim immigrants in London into the larger minority Muslim community and, more broadly, secular British society using an interpretive framework of the role of religion in diaspora. The integration process of Indonesian immigrants in London is considered within the multilevel context of the strengths and weaknesses of British multiculturalism and the prevalence of secularisation in British society on the one hand, and, on the other, the diasporic institutionalisation of Islam in the UK and the internal differentiation and fragmentation of the Muslim community in London. Combined with the pursuit of their ethno-religious tradition, the integration of Indonesians in London follows a multi-linear path either through the foundation of ethno-religious associations, assimilation into the broader Muslim community or adaptation to secularised British society. These multiple integration paths have ultimately polarised the religious and secularised trajectories of Indonesian immigrants in London into three groups: the traditionalists who pursue their ethno-religious tradition; the revivalists who lean toward the universally standardised Sunni Islamic traditional and the secularists who display secularised or individualised religiosity. In the context of these three different religious trajectories, the thesis examines the different positions taken by Indonesians in London towards their moderate Islamic tradition transplanted from the home country contextualised by the multicultural religious traditions of the Muslim diaspora. The study also describes different forms of social relations between Indonesians and fellow Muslim immigrants in London by examining the applicability of the normative idea of Muslim unity, the Ummah, amid persistent internal ethnic and religious sectarian diversity and fragmentation within the multicultural Muslim community