Abstract
The Ahmadi Muslim Community (a.k.a. Ahmadiyya Jama‘at [or ‘group’]), a minority Muslim faith originating in nineteenth century India, has spread to multiple countries of the West. Currently headquartered in the United Kingdom, the Jama‘at’s presence in British multicultural society merits close attention. Most of the growing body of scholarly literature on the Jama‘at focuses on the persecution and discrimination the Ahmadiyya has faced as a purported Islamic heresy. The question of whether Ahmadi identity can be positively shaped by present-day engagement with pluralist culture, and not merely given form through inherited memories of trauma, has yet to be fully addressed. To bridge that gap, we pose this research question: what potentialities exist for the future direction of the Ahmadiyya Jama‘at in the United Kingdom to be shaped by the authenticity (self-defining identity, dialogically understood) of its second-generation immigrants? To help answer this research question, the thesis employs Charles Taylor’s theoretical ideas concerning the ethics of authenticity, specifically the “horizon of significance.” That approach allows us to directly address the questions of personal identity, cutting through an often-fractious contemporary debate. We employ a principally deductive methodology to examine a range of qualitative data which has been sourced from semi-structured interviews and non-participant observations. Through these means, we consider possible expressions of authenticity arising from the context of second-generation Ahmadi commonalities of value. Aspects of the Ahmadiyya that potentially problematize the necessary recognition of authenticity, such as the spiritualised bureaucracy of the Jama‘at, are then analysed. Finally, the future potential for authenticity in a pluralistic twenty first century society is evaluated.The study argues that self-definitional possibilities of new Ahmadi generations will struggle to effect observable change in their community due to a Jama‘at that is principally designed to weather times of turbulence and flux. Nevertheless, even in a situation of fragile cultural pluralism, nudging Taylorian authenticity towards a Nietzschean “register of the aesthetic” offers new possibilities.
| Date of Award | 26 Jun 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Wali Aslam (Supervisor) & Scott Thomas (Supervisor) |