The question of identity is complex and can often haunt a person, amid the difficulty of answering it, in the midst of challenges imposed by tremendous technological advancement and the technical evolution in means of communication and interaction. This has made the world a small village, and consequently, humanity has become prey to everything new and strange.

But it is wise to simplify matters for young children and teenagers of both sexes, and to provide answers to big questions in a smooth and concise manner, so that our children do not fall victim to alienation, globalization, intellectual and cultural invasion, and civilizational estrangement, without a savior.

To begin with, the compass must be clearly and visibly established for our children, especially regarding their Islamic identity, and being a Muslim who professes the testimony of faith, believes in God, His angels, His messengers, and the Day of Judgment, and that the religion with God is Islam. They should understand that there are limits set by God, and commands and prohibitions that they must adhere to, as well as a Sharia within the framework of the Quran and Sunnah, which serves as their guide and path in this worldly life

Some may think that these are self-evident matters, but the waves of Westernization, atheism, and deviation that have hit new generations and dominated the media and communication require us to reaffirm those constants, revive those roots, and illuminate the path to bring those generations from darkness to light, guided and with clear evidence, without any doubt or suspicion, and where their beliefs are not shaken by hypocrites or atheists.

The second question of identity relates to the Arab being, in terms of language, tongue, history, and geography, and the connection to the Arab nation, with its past, present, and future, taking pride in that, in word and deed, being certain of the dignity of its nation when it clings to its language and religion. It established a civilization that led nations in previous centuries and achieved cultural accomplishments recognized by history.

Some of the new generations may feel shame and embarrassment from their affiliation with an Arab country that ranks low in indicators of knowledge, progress, and development. They might feel embarrassed by their Arabic language, picking up several words in English or French, and continuously chatter in those languages, believing that this reflects sophistication and advancement. This results in a neglect of their own culture and Arabic language, leading to a sense of inferiority in front of speakers of other languages, and retreating before cultures that do not compare to what our culture embodies in terms of values, principles, heritage, and history.

The third question of identity is unconventional and is the result of new changes that have imposed themselves on the world of adolescents and youth, who may be accused of rigidity and backwardness by their peers, especially when it comes to traditional and classical lifestyles versus "modern" ones. This question carries within it social and material pressures related to clothing style, hairstyle, the type of phone one owns, shopping habits, and even food and drink choices. In a consumption-driven world that follows trends and global brands in a blatant materialistic manner, these issues are particularly pressing.

There may be other questions related to identity that touch on different aspects of the lives of teenagers and young adults, such as the European team they support in football, the legendary player whose jersey they love to wear, the American star whose movies they adore, the pop band whose music and songs they are addicted to, the wrestler whose moves they imitate, the famous YouTuber whose channel they follow on YouTube, and the TikToker whose views and visits they are captivated by, among others. These questions have emerged from new perspectives and dimensions related to youth identity, which is indeed lost in the world of fashion.

A new identity is manifesting before our eyes, which I might assert has transcended the triad of religion, language, and history, imposing other components that touch upon belief, custom, and habit, alongside ethics and values. This includes aspects of education, marriage, friendships, and other forms of modern social life in the twenty-first century, which have reshaped and crafted new and strange identities, marked by a Western touch and a distorted flavor.

With the rapid development of platforms and means, the increasing diversity of ideas, the intense competition between ideologies, the cross-fertilization of cultures, and the multiplicity of purposes and goals, it has become a pressing obligation to study these identities, explore their characteristics and essence, delve into their roots and principles, and investigate what they contribute and what they lack. It is also important to unveil the concepts they promote, the visions they present, and to determine whether they are a constructive component and a qualitative addition or a factor of destruction and dependency in a new guise.

We may need to establish clubs for knowledge and cultural exchange, or centers for identity formation, to help new generations find themselves, explore their identities, engage in dialogue with others, and connect with their roots. This is not merely about an eternal relationship with parents and grandparents, but about launching from those roots into broader horizons that adapt to the changes of reality in this digital world. This should be done within the framework of an open and disciplined engagement with what others have offered and their achievements on all fronts, without being awed by them, belittling them, or adopting a sense of superiority over them, but rather merging all that is useful into a cohesive and robust identity that fosters creativity.

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Between their religious and moral values and the demands of Western societies, Muslim students in the West face multiple challenges due to cultural and social disparities. These students navigate an environment that encourages them to achieve notable academic and social accomplishments, benefiting from opportunities available in Western societies that promote innovation and excellence. However, these opportunities often come with compromises that may affect their religious and social values.

Western openness can expose them to cultural and religious shocks, such as dealing with negative stereotypes about Islam and Muslims and the ensuing need to assert themselves in the face of prejudice. Cultural norms around dress and interactions between men and women can also pose challenges that not everyone may handle wisely, often requiring a delicate balance for Muslims to maintain their faith while integrating into Western culture.

Innovation and Academic Excellence:

Muslim communities in the West serve as living examples of academic success and creativity across various fields of science. Many Muslim students emerge as intellectual leaders in areas such as medicine, engineering, information technology, and the humanities. This success is no coincidence but rather the result of several factors, most notably the commitment of Muslim communities to educating their children and fostering a culture of seeking knowledge, as recommended in Islam. For example, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: “The search for knowledge is an obligation laid on every Muslim, but he who commits it to those who are unworthy of it is like one who puts necklaces of jewels, pearls and gold on swine.”

In Western universities, Muslim students find environments that encourage critical thinking and innovation, enabling them to excel and showcase their talents. These environments, characterized by academic freedom and cultural diversity, help Muslim students positively interact with peers from various backgrounds, enriching their educational experience and enhancing their creative potential.

Additionally, Islamic ethics, which promote values of hard work, honesty, and sincerity, form the foundation of their academic success. These students often carry these values into their professional fields, becoming ambassadors of their culture and faith through their achievements. This success also helps counter negative stereotypes about Islam and Muslims in Western societies, fostering cultural understanding and building bridges of trust between different cultures.

Challenges of Losing Values:

Despite the significant achievements of Muslims in the West, Muslim students face profound challenges in preserving their religious identity and moral values amid environments that impose diverse cultural and social pressures. These challenges stem not only from adapting to a new culture but also from the effects of globalization and its promotion of lifestyles that may conflict with Islamic teachings.

1. Cultural Globalization: Globalization has blurred cultural boundaries, exposing Muslim students to Western lifestyles that may contradict their values. Media, including social media, reinforces these lifestyles by promoting individualistic values such as absolute freedom, which may conflict with the Islamic concept of collective responsibility. This clash often pressures some to abandon aspects of their religious values to avoid feelings of isolation or marginalization.

2. Socialization: The second and third generations of Muslim immigrants face compounded influences. Born and raised in a Western environment, they encounter local traditions that starkly differ from their families' cultural and religious roots. This disparity can sometimes lead to identity conflicts between what they learn at home and what they face in society, making the preservation of Islamic values a daily challenge. Peer pressure adds to the complexity, often pushing them to compromise these values to integrate into their surroundings.

3. Integration and Value Conflicts: Many Muslim students aspire to integrate into their new societies, but this can create an internal conflict between the desire to harmonize with peers and societal norms on one hand and adherence to their religious principles and collective values on the other. For example, Western society often emphasizes absolute independence, while Islam underscores familial bonds and responsibility toward others. This gap can lead to cultural alienation or conflicting priorities.

Addressing these challenges requires support from religious and cultural institutions and fostering intercultural dialogue to provide spaces that respect diversity and allow young Muslims to express their identity without compromising their values.

The Role of Muslim Communities and Institutions:

To address the challenges of preserving religious identity and values in the West, Muslim communities play a pivotal role in empowering individuals, especially youth, to stay connected to their cultural and religious roots. This role is evident in several key areas:

1. Educational and Religious Centers: Muslim communities can establish educational and religious centers that aim to introduce young people to the fundamentals of their faith in ways suited to the local context. Using local languages alongside their native language can enhance young people's understanding of Islam in a contemporary framework, enabling them to express their identity confidently.

2. Promoting Balanced Education: Islamic educational institutions can provide safe environments that combine academic excellence with the instillation of religious and moral values, fostering a sense of belonging among students. This approach reduces the risks of value erosion by embedding Islamic ethics in daily life.

Additionally, these institutions' educational programs can improve mutual understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims through dialogue initiatives and cultural exchanges that enhance understanding and break down cultural barriers.

3. Social and Cultural Activities: Muslim communities also can play a prominent role by organizing social and cultural events, such as collective iftars, youth conferences, and volunteer activities that strengthen bonds among Muslims and between them and other communities. These activities offer young Muslims opportunities to engage with Western society in ways that reflect their religious values, thereby promoting understanding and positive integration without eroding their identity.

4. Guidance and Counseling: Providing religious and social guidance to young Muslims is crucial. Religious leaders and mentors can offer advice on reconciling Islamic values with the daily challenges of living in multicultural Western societies.

By combining these efforts, Muslim communities can help young Muslims navigate their complex realities while maintaining a strong connection to their faith and cultural heritage.

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Sources:

• "Muslims in the West and the Battle of Values" – Al-Wa'i Magazine
• "The Muslim Community in the West and the Challenges of Identity Loss" – Al-Naba Network
• "Western Civilization and the Loss of Values" – Islamway

The globalization of customs and traditions poses a significant threat to identity, especially with the spread of fashion culture and "brands" and the growing consumerism of everything new and Western. This embodies a new form of occupation, one that captures minds and hearts before occupying land and countries.

Al-Mujtama'a engaged with a number of experts and academics to outline a prescription to confront this threat and to reveal its dimensions to the new generations, influenced by the wave of Americanization under the slogans of modernity, globalization, renewal, and progressiveness—hollow slogans based on stripping away will and erasing identity.

Dr. Iqbal Al-Samalooti, a professor of sociology, states that the fall of socialist societies provided a golden opportunity for the advocates of globalization, not only in the economy but also in culture and its related customs and traditions, where the Western model was presented as an ideal to follow and a symbol of progress and civilization, even if it was socially and culturally unacceptable in our conservative societies.

She told Al-Mujtama'a that Western media and its followers in our Arab and Islamic world played a role in embellishing Western customs and traditions, persistently working to absorb the initial wave of rejection, and gradually turning rejection into acceptance, even addiction, after replacing Western customs in clothing, food, drink, family life, and social life with our own traditions.

Al-Samalooti believes that multinational corporations played a significant role in accelerating the globalization of our customs and traditions through trends in both men's and women's fashion, introducing revealing clothing, Western cosmetics, ripped jeans, fast food, and globally branded restaurants. She also points to satanic hairstyles adopted by celebrities and tattoos, which are religiously forbidden and traditionally rejected. With the promotion of this culture, these customs and appearances have become symbols of modernity and civilization!

Susceptibility to Colonialism

Dr. Mukhtar Ghubashi, Deputy Director of the Arab Center for Political Studies, explained to Al-Mujtama'a that the project of globalizing customs and traditions has been framed within global theories promoted by people like Francis Fukuyama, the Japanese-born, American political scientist who proposed the “End of History” theory. This theory asserts the inevitability of the triumph of Western civilization, values, and morals and the spread of its customs, claiming that Western liberal democracy and capitalism represent the pinnacle of human intellectual achievement, signaling the end of other ideologies, whether Islamic or Eastern.

Ghubashi describes the current situation as a form of cultural, social, and economic invasion, positioning us as prey fallen victim to globalization, dependence, and blind imitation of the West, in line with what Algerian thinker Malik Bennabi called the "susceptibility to colonialism."

Dr. Jamal Shafeeq, Head of the Psychological Studies Center at Ain Shams University, shares this view, warning against the increasing objectification of women, who have become tools for promoting products from needles to rockets. The situation has worsened with the "trend cancer" that has infected social media, making the younger generation a victim of "TikTok" clips and others in pursuit of fame and money.

Shafeeq highlights another aspect of this globalization: the emergence of the term "cohabitation," promoting adultery and immorality while continuing to undermine legitimate marriage by promoting illicit relationships under deceptive names like "friendship" and "blood marriage," seeking acceptance from public opinion.

Urgent Confrontation

As for confrontation strategies, Dr. Mahmoud Al-Sawy, former Vice Dean of the Colleges of Da'wah and Media at Al-Azhar University, recommends exposing these terms and refuting these falsehoods. He also calls for prohibiting Western holidays that have invaded our societies and become an occasion for more immorality and ethical breakdown, such as "Valentine's Day." This aligns with the warning in our religion against being followers without discernment, as the Prophet (ﷺ) said: “You will follow the ways of those nations who were before you, span by span and cubit by cubit (i.e., inch by inch) so much so that even if they entered a hole of a mastigure, you would follow them.” We said, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! (Do you mean) the Jews and the Christians?" He said, "Whom else?"

Al-Sawy advocates for safeguarding children and youth through knowledge and education, strengthening their religious upbringing, and promoting Islamic awareness and pride in Arab culture and identity within a comprehensive strategy. This strategy should involve Arab and Islamic organizations, families, schools, universities, and other institutions of education, culture, and media.

Al-Sawy also calls for Islamizing social media, curbing the offenses of "bloggers" and "YouTubers," banning the publication of intimate details on video sites, establishing laws to prevent these platforms from promoting scandals and explicit clips, and tracking down those seeking financial gain through illegitimate means. He also emphasizes regulating media and artistic content to stand against the flood of globalization and protect our youth from anything that harms their identity and religion.

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Every nation has its own identity, and each identity has unique characteristics that distinguish it. This identity is crucial for the advancement and development of nations; without it, they lose their meaning, stability, and sense of existence.

Identity is not a static concept determined beforehand. It is a continuous process shaped and altered by various influencing factors, primarily the prevailing culture, upbringing patterns, and accumulated experiences.

One might ask a seemingly obvious question: Why should I have a defined identity? Why do nations concern themselves with this matter?

To answer, we emphasize that the importance of identity lies in its role in guiding the behavior of individuals and groups towards construction and development. Without it, a person becomes empty, follower, and scattered, torn by contradictions and attracted by trivialities.

In the life of nations, identity is essential for these nations to have meaning, purpose, and goals.

Unified belief, language, history, and interconnected geographical location are indispensable components of identity.

Are there additional features to our Islamic identity?

Our Islamic identity surpasses all other identities because it belongs to Allah, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, and to His Prophet, peace be upon him, who has been revealed to by his Lord.

This identity belongs to the greatest religion and the most comprehensive message. It encompasses the entire life of a Muslim, defining their purpose and goal in life. It is also the source of their honor and dignity: “And to Allah belongs [all] honor, and to His Messenger, and to the believers, but the hypocrites do not know.” (Al-Munafiqun: 8)

Umar ibn Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “We were the most humiliated people, and Allah honored us with Islam. If we seek honor through anything else, Allah will humiliate us.”

Today, amid the world's civilizational and cultural conflicts and the continuous attempts to obliterate the Islamic identity to prevent Islam from becoming strong again, and to prevent the Islamic spirit from awakening, the features of Islamic identity in Muslim societies have significantly faded, unlike individuals where many remain steadfast in their Islamic identity, defending and holding on to it.

Problems and Challenges

However, the manifestations of identity loss are strongly evident in many Muslim societies, including:

• The impact of secularism, which separates religion from people's lives, resulting in the weakening of the Islamic identity.
• The ongoing attack from proponents of enlightenment on the features of Islamic identity amidst the weakness of opposing discourse. This is something that no longer requires proof or evidence.
• Many young Muslims gravitate towards Western culture in all aspects of life.

The major problem is that Muslim youth are clearly weak and scattered in the face of other cultures that clash with Islamic values and principles. The primary reason for this weakness is the overwhelming characteristics of these cultures, which are dazzling and possess elements of virtual dominance.

Additionally, these cultures receive strong support from many anti-Islam entities, and they are combined with impressive scientific and technological advancements linked closely to a consumer culture backed by enticing values, symbols, and methods within the global capitalist system.

• Another problem facing our Islamic societies is that other cultures find fertile ground in Muslim societies to spread their ideas and values, which helps distort Islamic values to align with those transient cultures.

The most prominent of these ideas is the elevation of reason as the primary guide for behavior. Moreover, the institutions that promote globalization generously fund their agents in Muslim societies to spread destructive ideas that weaken the youth's connection to their identity. This is in contrast to cultural centers, some foreign schools, and charitable organizations that significantly impact the intellectual, educational, and cultural system.

• The media, which adopts values opposing Islamic principles, has had the greatest impact on weakening the Islamic identity, especially amidst the significant decline of other nurturing factors such as family, school, friends, and places of worship.

The development of media means and their reach to every individual in the Muslim community, with their attractive and entertaining content, have influenced the value system that preserves identity.

Moreover, the absence of role models and leadership figures and the weakness of the educational system in Muslim societies have created a significant psychological and moral void among the youth.

The question remains: How do we make our youth proud of their Islamic identity?

I believe the starting point should be preserving the elements of identity, which begin with the Arabic language and extend to customs and traditions, along with enhancing the role of media in all its forms in promoting authentic values that elevate the Islamic identity. Continuous individual and institutional efforts are needed to preserve cultural heritage, without preventing adaptation to global changes.

Today, the responsibility is heavy on every Muslim who understands the reality of their existence on this earth. Given the evident facts, they must exert their utmost effort to affirm the Islamic identity and adhere to its manifestations, countering others with argument and evidence, and working to spread it, as it is derived from a sound religion from the Lord of the worlds.

If Western societies, which permit deviancy and oppose nature, are proud of their distorted identity that lacks any upright morals or noble values, then it is more fitting for Muslims to be proud of their identity based on divine principles, aligned with noble virtues, sound nature, and healthy minds.

If it is difficult to work on a project adopted by Arab and Islamic governments to preserve the Islamic identity, then the head of the family in their home, the teacher in their school, the intellectual, the preacher, the media person, and every individual in the community bear the responsibility before Allah and the community, each according to their ability, to preserve the Islamic identity. This starts with affirming that the Quran and the purified Sunnah are the primary sources of Islamic identity: “So hold fast to that which is revealed to you. Indeed, you are on a straight path. And indeed, it is a reminder for you and your people, and you will be questioned.” (Az-Zukhruf: 43-44) The Prophet, peace be upon him, said in a hadith reported by Abu Dawood: “He who copies any people is one of them.” This includes pride in the Arabic language, the use of Arabic and Islamic names for individuals and businesses, and opposing advocates of Westernization and those seeking to detach from the Islamic identity.

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