Cultural Muslim is a general term used to define a group of people who are identified by association with a Muslim community rather than Islamic faith or rituals.

Concept

Generally, a Muslim is defined by faith in the religion of Islam; however, in the modern world there are religiously unobservant, agnostic or atheist individuals who still identify with the Muslim culture due to family background, personal experiences or fear of retribution for apostasy, which is punishable by death according to the main stream view held by Islamic scholars. Malise Ruthven discusses the term in Islam: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2000) as follows:

There is, however, a secondary meaning to 'Muslim' which may shade into the first. A Muslim is one born to a Muslim father who takes on his or her parents' confessional identity without necessarily subscribing to the beliefs and practices associated with the faith, just as a Jew may describe him- or herself as 'Jewish' without observing the Halacha. In non-Muslim societies, such Muslims may subscribe to, and be vested with, secular identities. The label 'Muslim' indicates their ethnicity and group allegiance, but not necessarily their religious beliefs. In this limited context (which may apply to other Muslim minorities in Europe and Asia), there may be no contradiction between being Muslim and being atheist or agnostic, just as there are Jewish atheists and Jewish agnostics... It should be noted, however, that this secular definition of Muslim (sometimes the terms 'cultural Muslim' or 'nominal Muslim' are used) is very far from being uncontested.

Muslim culture as opposed to religion

Religious Muslims believe and practice Islam to varying degrees. Cultural Muslims are likely to believe in Islam, but retain some practices for social and cultural rather than religious reasons. Some aspects of retained Muslim culture are described below. It should be understood, however, that it is not the case that Cultural Muslims are forced, somehow, to subscribe to those practices. Rather, they are observed out of convenience.

Names

The most basic example of this is a person's name. Many Arabic names are now commonly regarded as being "Muslim". Many Arab carry these names by virtue of descent, regardless of their personal beliefs.

Holidays and festivals

Cultural Muslims often celebrate the Muslim festivals of Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha. However, their celebrations are likely to be more in the nature of social gatherings rather than religious ones. Religious Muslims would generally consider the morning salat or ritual prayer to be central to Eid; however, cultural Muslims may focus on the opportunity to meet and feast with friends and family later in the day.

Public ceremonies

Often out of family pressures, cultural Muslims often adhere to traditionally Muslim forms of marriage and funerals. For religious Muslims, the form of these is dictated by religious traditions which have to be strictly adhered to. For cultural Muslims, these formalities no longer have religious significance but may be retained out of deference to custom.

Circumcision

Almost all Cultural Muslims would have their male offspring circumcised, since non-circumcised males are highly frowned upon by the society.

Disputes

Religious Muslims are often opposed to the use of the term cultural Muslim, as their definition of Muslim is fundamentally a religious one; thus the terms Muslim culture and cultural Muslim are equally meaningless to them.

Turkey

Officially, about 99.8% of the population in Turkey is reported to be Muslim. However the criteria used to make such a judgment are fairly different from those in the Western world. The Turkish people share a culture that was heavily influenced by the religion of Islam. One can connect to the Muslim aspects within Turkish culture without accepting all of Islamic theology.

It is no surprise that people would try to share common beliefs if there is no eminent reason to reject them. A born Muslim would consider himself or herself a Muslim even he or she does not practice any actions of religion. In the end, the proportion of the population in Turkey that practice the religion as a part of their beliefs is considerably lower than the officially-stated figure. Many either do not practice at all (although they consider themselves Muslims) or merely engage in certain activities out of cultural, not religious motives.

Furthermore, the civil registry registers religion, which is also written on the mandatory identity cards (nüfus cüzdanı) issued by the government. There is no option to leave this blank.

Kabylia

In Kabylia, a large part of the population is Muslim, but in fact the practice of this religion is not very important among Kabyle people. The only "real" Muslim practices are the traditional ones, for example for marriage. This is due to several reasons. First, the strong secular tradition of the Berber culture: the Kabyle justice has been secular for centuries, and social life is governed by secular laws (for example, for inheritance issues). Second, the orientation of Kabyles to the Western world and Western culture, plus the legacy of Christianism, support some traditions which are in opposition with the traditional vision of Islam, examples of which are the absence of polygamy and hijab (or Islamic dress in general), and the consumption of alcohol.

This face of the Muslim Kabyle society must not be confused with the anti-Muslim behavior of some Kabyle nationalists, for who Islam is "the Arabs' religion". The context of this behavior is very complex; the struggle against the central Algerian power includes the rejection of its values, which are Arabism and... Islam, while there is also the question of "saving Kabyle secular Islam against the violence of Arabist Islamism".

One of the results of this situation is that many Muslims (especially among Arabs) do not consider Kabyle Muslims as real ones, but as Christians or Kuffar (the Arabic word for "disbelievers"). It is further interesting to note that Kabyle Christians are by far more observant than their Muslim cousins.

References

• Islam: A Very Short Introduction, by Malise Ruthven, Oxford University Press, 2000.

See also

• Cultural Christian
• Cultural Judaism, Secular Jewish culture
• Cultural Mormon