Cultural phycology

Culture & Psychology

2016, Vol. 22(1) 65–79

! The Author(s) 2016

Reprints and permissions:

sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav

DOI: 10.1177/1354067X15621478

cap.sagepub.com

Article

The impact of Islam and the public and political portrayals of Islam on child-rearing practices—Discursive analyses of parental accounts among Muslims living in Denmark

Nina T Dalgaard University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract

With the rise of Islamist terrorist attacks in the US and Europe the impact of Islam on

child-rearing practices has become a matter of public attention and debate. Within the

political discourse in the Western world and in the mass media, Muslims are often being

portrayed negatively. Research has documented how Muslims living in the West are

adversely affected by the negative portrayals of Islam associated with the War on Terror.

The aim of the present study was to explore the impact of Islam on child-rearing

practices and parental identity formation among self-identified Muslims in Denmark.

Using a discursive approach to analyzing interviews with parents in 29 Middle Eastern

refugee families, six rhetorical strategies were identified: (1) minimizing differences,

(2) highlighting compatibility, (3) emphasizing positive aspects of Islam, (4) countering

common prejudice, (5) actively distancing oneself from terrorists/extremists, and

(6) separating Islam as a religion from cultural traditions. It is argued that the global

as well as national political discourse post 9/11 is reflected in all of the six rhetorical

strategies. Whether parents position themselves as having a high or low bicultural

identity or a Muslim parental identity, their positioning involves drawing on the

discursive resources from the mass media, the global and national political and public

discourse. Furthermore, it is argued that all rhetorical strategies can be seen as

attempts to counter the hurt associated with the negative portrayal of Islam.

Corresponding author:

Nina T Dalgaard, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Email: [email protected]

Keywords

Islam, child-rearing practices, discursive analyses, political discourse

Introduction

In the wake of the increased incidence of Islamist extremist terrorist attacks in Europe and in the US, an increased public awareness of the impact of Islam on child-rearing practices has arisen. Within the public debate and the mass media, Muslims are often being portrayed very negatively (Jacobsen, 2013, 2015; Jacobsen, Jensen, Vitus, & Weibel, 2012; Schmidt, 2004). Is Islam as a religion the reason for the increased terror threat? Are the parents to blame when ordinary young people decide to leave the West to join Islamist terrorist groups such as ISIS or Al-Qaeda? Are all Muslim parents extremists? Or are increased racism, preju- dice, and negative perception and portrayal of Islam the root cause of the radic- alization of Islamic youth? These are the central questions asked within the public debate in both Northern America and Europe.

Within the Danish context the Danish Newspaper Jyllands-Posten further inten- sified the global political discourse related to the War on Terror after the publica- tion of the cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad in 2005. The publication of these led to an escalating series of events both nationally and internationally which sparked off a political and public debate in Denmark which may be described as vicious at times (Nielsen, 2011). Fear, mutual paranoia, and suspicion are characteristics of the public discourse within the Danish context, whether it takes place between politicians or laymen using social media. Furthermore, it may be argued that the articulation of Islam in Danish political debates is constructing a culturalistic relational antagonism in which the Danish collective identity ‘‘us’’ is constructed through the delimitation of the Muslim ‘‘them’’ (Jacobsen, 2015). This development may be seen as a larger rhetorical change within the European pol- itical discourse, in which Islam has become a major political issue associated with questions of security and terrorism. Yılmaz (2012) argues that this development should be seen as a result of a hegemonic shift, in which the far-right populist parties have succeeded in moving immigration to the center of political discourse by presenting immigration and Islam as a cultural threat to the future of European nations. As part of this political discourse second-generation immigrants are often portrayed as a major threat to the Danish society, and parents of maladjusted second-generation immigrants are often portrayed as either culprits or simply incompetent (Dalsbæk, 2010; Khader, 2012).

This paper is an attempt to explore Muslim parental accounts of the impact of Islam on their child-rearing practices within this discourse and to analyze how global and national political discourse is reflected within Muslim parental identity formation.

66 Culture & Psychology 22(1)

Background

Post 9/11 a number of studies have documented the negative effects of the War on Terror on Muslim communities in North America and in Europe (Abbas, 2005; Bayoumi, 2008; Ewing, 2008; Rousseau, Ferradji, Mekki-Berrada, & Jamil, 2013). More specifically, a number of studies have explored how Muslim children and youth in the West are negatively affected by the War on Terror, the media representations of Islam, and by contextual characteristics of their everyday ecology (Oppedal & Røysamb, 2007; Rousseau & Jamil, 2010; Sirin & Fine, 2007).

Balsano and Sirin (2007) argue that discrimination in terms of religious, ethnic, and physical profiling experienced by Muslim youth in the West seems to be perceived by the general public as an acceptable ‘‘collateral damage’’ of the War on Terror. The authors argue that these acts of discrimination are too often left unchallenged and points to the association between unfavorable social and devel- opmental outcomes and discrimination. Rousseau, Hassan, Moreau, and Thombs (2011) explored the association between psychological distress and perceived dis- crimination in newly arrived immigrants before and after September 11, 2001 and found an increase in perception of discrimination and psychological distress among Arab Muslim recent immigrant communities after 9/11.

In a study of the meaning systems evoked around 9/11 in two Pakistani com- munities in Canada and Pakistan, Rousseau and Jamil (2008) found that regardless of location, Pakistanis’ favor a conspiracy scenario which protects the Muslim community from the responsibility of the 9/11 events. The study documents how respondents refer to an argumentation process based on ‘‘proofs’’ thus mirroring the political rhetoric used by the US government to justify the military interven- tions in Iraq. The study shows how the subjective meaning of events such as 9/11 are mediated by cultural identity and global politics and how the perception of self versus other (e.g. Pakistanis locally and Muslims globally versus America and the West more generally) may lead to an internalization of a negative self-image within minority groups.

In summary, various studies point to the association between global political discourse post 9/11 including the negative portrayal of Islam within the mass media and negative mental health characteristics, cultural identity, and self-image within Muslim communities in the West.

Aim

The aim of this article is to explore Muslim parental accounts of the impact of Islam on their child-rearing practices within the Danish context and to analyze how global and national political discourse is reflected within Muslim parental identity formation.

Dalgaard 67

Method

Research process

Interviews were undertaken with 29 refugee families from the Middle East with school-aged children. The sample consists of 25 two-parent families and four single-mother families. Countries of origin included: Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Afghanistan. The parents in these families all identified them- selves as Muslim. The participants were recruited for the purpose of another study using a nonprobabilistic sampling strategy in collaboration with five different psychiatric treatments centers. At least one of the parents in all families was referred for treatment of posttraumatic symptoms. The families all had at least temporary residency status in Denmark. The interviews were carried out in the participants’ native languages: Arabic or Farsi by the first author and a profes- sional interpreter, except for three families who preferred to speak in Danish or English without the presence of an interpreter. The interviews took place in the family home or at the treatment center depending on the participants’ wishes. The vast majority of interviews were conducted with both parents present, but in nine cases only one parent was able to participate in the qualitative interview, this includes the single-mother families. Of the five families where only one parent was present for the interview, three participating parents were fathers and two were mothers. The interviews took place between July 2013 and December 2014 and followed a semischeduled protocol structured around topic areas related to parenting, family functioning, and the developmental history of one of their chil- dren. Interviews lasted between 1 and 2 h. All interviews were transcribed in Danish. For the purpose of this article, selected quotes were translated into English by the author.

Analytical strategy

The approach to discursive analyses is inspired by discourse analysis in social psychology (Potter & Wetherell, 1987). Inherent in this approach is the notion of discourse as a form of social action and thus the focus within the present study is on the way in which participants use discursive resources such as narratives, meta- phors, and categories and with what effects. A basic assumption is that people use language to achieve certain interpersonal goals within specific interactional con- texts (Georgaca & Avdi, 2012). In addition to this, the approach assumes that discourse is always situated and thus places emphasis on the sequential organiza- tion of discourse, meaning that utterances must be understood in relation to what precedes and follows them. Furthermore, the approach assumes that discourse is institutionally situated, may be shaped and reshaped by local norms, and that discourse is rhetorically situated meaning that it can be fashioned to resist attempts to undermine or counter it. Third, the approach is characterized by a dual notion, in which discourse is seen as both constructed and constructive, meaning that discourse is both built from various resources and at the same time a way of

68 Culture & Psychology 22(1)

constructing versions of the world (McMullen, 2011; Potter, 2003). Finally, the ana- lytical approach is based on the conceptualization of discourses as being wrapped up with power as discourses make certain versions of reality and personhood available while marginalizing alternative knowledge (Georgaca & Avdi, 2012).

In terms of epistemology this study assumes a relativist view, in which it is assumed that there are no objective grounds on which the truths of claims can be proven and that the value of knowledge should be evaluated based on other criteria such as applicability, usefulness, and clarity (Nielsen, 2007; Potter, 1996).

Procedure

The first round of coding consisted of reading though all 29 interviews in their entire length in an undirected fashion. During the second round of coding, the incidents in which the parents talked about religion either spontaneously or in response to the interviewer’s questions were selected, and initial incident- by-incident descriptive codes were developed. The codes were based on both the- matic content and discourse analytical concepts such as positioning of self and others. During the third round of coding, the descriptive codes were combined and organized, which led to the emergence of six rhetorical strategies aimed at defining the participants’ parental identity and the impact of Islam on their child-rearing practice.

Throughout the coding process reflections regarding the impact of the interview context were taken into consideration. The fact that the initial contact between the interviewees and the researcher was facilitated by the psychiatric treatment centers, and that the researcher is ethnically Danish clearly influenced the interview mater- ial. As will be evident in the ‘‘Analysis’’ section many of the parents present with an almost apologetic approach to discussing Islam, and this may be due to their perception of the researcher as a representative of the secular Danish norms and society.

Analysis

Minimizing differences

A number of parents use a rhetorical strategy in which differences between Muslims and Majority Danes are thoroughly downplayed, thus actively countering the pol- itical discourse in which the notion of ‘‘Danishness’’ is constructed through the delimitation of Muslims (Jacobsen, 2015). These parents spontaneously say things like:

Mother: we are actually not that different from the way in which things are done here in

Denmark, there are some things that are important to me, for instance that the family

sticks together, the way I do with my siblings . . . a very important aspect is that the

family sticks together. There are certain traditions and celebrations that we keep,

Dalgaard 69

otherwise we do the same things that one does in Danish families. (Excerpt from

Interview with Family 4)

Furthermore, these parents often try to counter the view of Islam as being an obstacle to being Danish and to being loyal citizens in Denmark:

Mother: . . . in the Koran it says that one should educate oneself, that one should respect

the elderly and that one should respect other human beings . . . yes all these things it says

in the Koran, and is really the same in Denmark and with the Danes, some of them have

exactly the same take on things as we do in Islam, especially all the good elements.

(Excerpt from Interview with Family 10)

The parents who use this strategy present Islam as just one aspect of their cultural background. They portray themselves as not that different from ethnically Danish parents, and they emphasize similarities that are exclusively positive in order to minimize potential resistance. The parents employing this strategy position themselves as moderate bicultural. They do not emphasize either of their cultural identities, and other aspects of their parental identity are portrayed as equally important or more important than the practice of Islam.

Highlighting compatibility

Another strategy used by Muslim parents is to emphasize how the practice of Islam is fully compatible with being part of mainstream Danish culture and how the two complement each other. Parents using this strategy position themselves as high bicultural and place emphasis on the universality of wanting what is best for one’s children, while stressing how this is an intrinsic part of being Muslim:

Interviewer: are there things from your own cultural background that you think are

important to pass on to your children?

Father: yes

Mother: yes of cause

Father: the traditions that we have; respecting others. We were born Muslim and we

were born Shia, so we teach them about religion, the way our parents taught us, so we

pass that on in a non-coercive manner, we don’t force it upon them, we tell them about it,

and then they accept this, and then they can capture the good things from both the Danish

and our culture

Mother: yes well, we teach them about how it is inherent in our culture to be respectful

towards others and that one should be polite towards others and about religion, we talk a

lot about that

Father: that things have to be right, that one must not cheat or behave badly. (Excerpt

from Interview with Family 11)

70 Culture & Psychology 22(1)

Thus, the parents who use this strategy seem to try to counter any resistance by acknowledging differences but highlighting how all religions and cultures have both positive and negative characteristics. These parents spend a lot of discursive resources on positioning themselves as flexible, which could be seen as a subtle response to the negative media portrayals of Muslims parents as being rigid. Furthermore, it could be seen as a result of the interview context. Within the dialog between the researcher and the parents it often appears as if the parents are trying to convince the researcher of the universality of their personal perception of Islam and of their cultural heritage. This can be seen in the latter excerpt in which the father presents the notion of both Danish and Iraqi culture as static entities. This notion is further strengthened when the mother says that being respectful ‘‘is inherent’’ in ‘‘our culture.’’ Rhetorically the static notion of culture seems to serve the purpose of eliminating the credibility of alternative versions of Islam.

Emphasizing positive aspects of Islam

Emphasizing positive aspects of Islam is a very common rhetorical strategy. This strategy involves abstaining from making comparisons and ignoring potential similarities between Islam and mainstream Danish culture including Christianity. Instead family cohesion, helping the poor, and respect for the elderly are high- lighted as the key elements within the portrayal of Islam. These parents typically position themselves as having a strong Muslim identity:

Mother: . . . we celebrate Eid after the Ramadan, it is important to me, that they under-

stand why we celebrate this, so that they can carry on with the tradition, when they

become adults, those are the kinds of things that I would like to pass on

Interviewer: so traditions and religion?

Mother: Well, yes in an age-appropriate manner, right now they aren’t old enough to

pray 5 times a day or to celebrate the Ramadan (fasting), but that will happen eventu-

ally . . . and then there is the way in which one speaks to one another, that one shouldn’t

say bad things to each other, and that one shouldn’t curse and that one should be polite,

those kinds of things I teach them from the start

Interviewer: so respecting other human beings?

Mother: yes respect for others especially old people, and that one should care for the

elderly. We have an elderly neighbor, and always when my son meets him, then he helps

him with carrying his bags, he helps the elderly man I mean, and when we have a cele-

bration, and they (children) are wearing their finest clothes, then they have to go and say

hello to him, because that is what one does when there is a celebration . . . (Excerpt from

Interview with Family 9)

Within the group of parents using this strategy, there are a few parents who expli- citly position themselves as victims of racism and prejudice. One father reports

Dalgaard 71

feeling like a ‘‘second-degree’’ human being in Denmark and he is very angry with the Danish authorities due to the fact that he and his children still haven’t obtained Danish citizenship. This father was originally a medical doctor, and the Danish Health authorities have not granted him permission to practice medicine in Denmark, which he feels is very humiliating. In this case, it can be seen how the father’s self-perception seems to be shaped by national politics. His parental iden- tity is furthermore characterized by a rigid perception of Islam. Throughout the interview this father only emphasizes positive aspects of Islam, and thus his pos- itioning of himself as a Muslim father seems to serve the purpose of countering what he perceives as the political and public discursive positioning of him as a weak and incompetent parent unable to provide for his children.

What the parents using this strategy have in common is that their accounts lack any kind of critical reflection on Islam and Islamic child rearing. This exclusively positive portrayal of Islam seems to serve the rhetorical purpose of protecting a strong (Muslim) parental identity, which is reflected in the following excerpt:

Interviewer: so what are your dreams for the future here in Denmark?

Father: to take care of our children properly and raise then so they don’t need anything

and that they will get an academic education and be very good at what they do, and that

they are happy so that I can show the Danes that my children are an asset. (Excerpt from

Interview with family 15)

In the excerpt it can be seen how the father uses an identity distinction between the ‘‘Danes’’ and himself as a Muslim, which mirrors the rhetoric within the Danish political debate (Jacobsen, 2015). Furthermore, it is interesting to note how he states that he wants his children to do well, not because it brings him satisfaction in itself, but because it would be away of proving his own worth to ‘‘the Danes.’’

Countering common prejudice

One of the strategies in which the influence of the negative representations of Islam within the media and public discourse is most striking is the one in which parents actively and explicitly try to counter common prejudice. As can be seen in the following excerpt, the mother responds to the assumed prejudice of the interviewer, by emphasizing that even though she defines herself as Muslim, this doesn’t mean that she is strict or that she practices rigid behavior control over her children. She even says to the interviewer ‘‘you mustn’t think,’’ reacting to her own perception of what the interviewer might think, without the interviewer having said anything:

Interviewer: are there things from your culture of origin, I mean like values, and trad-

itions and things like that, that are important for you to pass on to your children?

72 Culture & Psychology 22(1)

Mother: well yes, I mean we are Muslims and things like that, I am not very strict like

that or it is not like they are not allowed to do things . . .

Interviewer: so religion is important to you?

Mother: well yes, it is okay like that, I try to raise them in a good way like teach them

what our religion tells us, but I am not very strict as a mother, I mean you mustn’t

think . . .

Interviewer: uhmm yes, so are they allowed to take part in leisure time activities and

things like that?

Mother: yes yes they go on camps and school trips (. . .). (Excerpt from Interview with

Family 3)

This reaction on the part of the parents should be seen within the context of the interview. The author/interviewer is ethnically Danish and thus the interview set- ting becomes a context in which the global and national political discourse is both constructed and reconstructed, as the parents try to position their parental identity by both rejecting and at the same time acknowledging the existence of and even drawing on the national and political discourse.

Father: If we are afraid to let the kids grow up in Denmark? Well, Yes, there are some

worries, off course, to let the kids grow up here, had we been in our home country, things

would have happened automatically with regard to how one looks up to one’s parents,

how one respects one’s parents and the elderly, these things are very different where we

come from. I am not saying that one cannot respect one’s parents in Denmark, but it says

in the Quran, how you are supposed to act with respect to your parents, and that is a part

of how you are raised, and in Iraq this happens automatically, but here we are lacking

that part . . . oh I hope I am not misunderstood, it is not my intention to say anything bad

about Denmark, it is a very civilized country, and it is developed in a way so there is a

basic respects for human beings and for human rights and I have a deep respect for that,

but I think, relations between each other, the emotional stuff, how we do things are

different, and with regard to that we do get worried about the children and we feel a

need to protect them’’

Extract from interview with respondent family 23

As can be seen from the last excerpt the father feels the need to emphasize his secular worldview and his respect for human rights, which may be seen as a rhet- orical strategy targeted at refuting nonverbalized prejudice in the interviewer. This father is a very devout Muslim, who states that religion is the most important aspect of his child-rearing philosophy. Immediately after this he also states that he has seven children, and that ‘‘the police have never been to our house’’, meaning that he has managed to keep his children out of any kind of trouble. This statement can be seen as a direct reflection of the public and political debate in Denmark,

Dalgaard 73

in which the overrepresentation of ethnically minority youth within criminal stat- istics is often pointed out by proponents of stricter laws on immigration. Rhetorically the father highlights how his religious beliefs are not an obstacle to responsible parenting, directly countering claims made by the political right-wing in Denmark (Yılmaz, 2012).

Actively distancing oneself from terrorists/extremist

All interviews were carried out before the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris and the February 2015 shootings in Copenhagen. However, some parents already use a strategy of distancing oneself from jihadist extremists and from terror and violence committed by Islamist extremists. The influence of the global political discourse is easily seen when parents use this strategy. These parents emphasize how the extremists are abusing and misinterpreting Islam:

Interviewer: are there things that worry you regarding your children’s future in

Denmark?

Mother: yeah I am really worried about the jihadist Islamist movements, they are

growing very strong here in Denmark, I am very afraid of them and I worry that

these Islamist extremist movements will influence the children. They are criminals, and

they behave in the most inhumane ways. Recently they (her children) showed me a video

of a young Christian girl, who was captured by the Jihadist movement in Syria, and they

tortured her . . . and then they shot her afterwards (becomes emotional) and at the same

time they were shouting ‘‘God is great’’, and I don’t understand that, how can God accept

things like that?

Interviewer: uhmm that is frightening

Mother: well but those people from the Jihadist movement they feel righteous, they feel

as if they have God on their side, and that others are infidels who have to be elim-

inated . . .. And I don’t believe that these things are accepted within Islam, I don’t believe

that God will love them. No. Islam is nothing like that. (Excerpt from Interview with

family 10)

Given the setting of the interviews (often the family home) it seems paradoxical and almost absurd that parents in the study feel the need to specify their lack of hos- tility toward the West and their disdain for terrorist attacks, but this was, however, the case within a few families, where parents spontaneously mentioned Islamist groups as something they are both afraid of and opposed to.

Separating Islam as a religion from cultural traditions

The last strategy identified in the study is the one in which Muslim parents seem to mirror the political discourse within the Danish parliament. These parents position themselves as moderate Muslims and emphasize how many practices are cultural

74 Culture & Psychology 22(1)

traditions rather than intrinsic aspects of Islam in a theological sense. These par- ents furthermore position themselves as low bicultural favoring the Danish national identity, and they are actively distancing themselves from anyone who might practice religion in a way that may challenge the Danish national identity:

(. . .)a lot of Muslims don’t know the difference between tradition and the Koran, but

tradition is one thing, and the Koran is another, and it is like they confuse one thing for

the other. (Excerpt from Interview with F25)

As can be seen the rhetorical purpose of this extract is dual. The mother tries to defend Islam by separating Islam from its traditional practice, but at the very same time she draws upon the discursive identity distinction in which being Muslim is delimitated from being Danish. The same phenomenon can be seen in the following excerpt in which a father describes traditional Muslim parenting practices as a ‘‘culture of coersion’’:

When I think about refugees from the Middle East, and I am thinking those with a

Muslim background, then I consider their religious background to be an obstacle, based

on my own experiences that I have with meeting fellow Iraqi refugees who have come to

this country, you know, I lived in a refugee camp for 1,5 year, and I think that it is a very

small percentage of them who can really feel the effects of what they have been through

and of torture that they have been subjected to. I believe that most of the problems

experienced by these families are caused by cultural barriers, because I think that par-

ents, our parents or at least fathers they try to teach their children to become a copy of

themselves. That is how they want it, and it is like parents expect their children to

preserve these barriers, for instance with regard to sexuality even when they are living

in Denmark, but here relations between men and women are more open. So when parents

have this background from their country of origin it becomes highly problematic for the

children, so that’s why kindergarten is such a good thing, because when children go

to kindergarten they can feel that things are more free and open, they can play

freely and decide for themselves, but then when he or she comes home, then it is the

family who decide everything, even what kind of clothes you wear, even the color, it is the

parents who decide everything, and that doesn’t work. So this culture of coercion, which

our parents represented with regard to religion, they pass that on, and I think that has a

very negative impact on the children. Because they are trying to force the children to

be the same way they themselves were brought up to be’’. (Excerpt from Interview

with F19)

Parents using this strategy position themselves as well-integrated within Danish society, and it is clear that their rhetorical strategy draws upon discursive resources from the political discourse and debate in Denmark. These parents’ discourse seems to reflect the positive attitude toward multiculturalism, which traditionally is associated with the center-left and left-wing parties within the Danish Parliament (Schumacher & van Kersbergen, 2014). However, interestingly enough they are

Dalgaard 75

also reflecting the negative cultural framing of integration, which is associated with the populist right-wing parties (Yılmaz, 2012).

Discussion

As can be seen from the analysis, both the national and the global political discourse post 9/11 are reflected in all of the six rhetorical strategies. Whether parents position themselves as having a high or low bicultural or a Muslim paren- tal identity, their positioning involves drawing on already existing discursive resources.

Interestingly, all of the parental rhetorical strategies can also be seen as attempts to counter the feelings of hurt associated with the negative portrayals of Islam. Whether the disclaim is done by actively trying to counter common prejudice, by emphasizing the positive aspects of Islam, by emphasizing similarities and com- patibility, by distancing oneself from terrorists, or by using the rhetoric of the Danish left-wing parties and thus separating Islam as a religion from cultural traditions, the rhetorical strategies directly or indirectly serve the purpose of dis- claiming negative portrayals of Islam. This finding confirms the notion of collateral damage (Balsano & Sirin, 2007) and sheds light on the processes by which parents self-identified as Muslim may position themselves in response to this. Interestingly, a number of the parental rhetorical strategies not only counter but also reproduce the political discourse in which being Muslim and being Danish are portrayed as mutually exclusive categories.

From a developmental psychological perspective, these findings have important implications on several levels. At a societal level the findings demonstrate the influ- ence of political discourse on parental identity formation, which may warrant political action toward the promotion of less stereotypical portrayals of Islam within the public and political discourse.

At a family or an individual level the findings have implications for professionals working with families such as these. One may argue that professionals need to pay careful attention to the influence of Islam on child rearing, as this is clearly important to the self-perception of this group of parents. Professionals working with this group of parents need to be aware of the hurt associated with the public discourse regarding Islam, and this issue should be addressed openly. The findings from the present study suggest the need for a culturally sensitive approach in which ethnic majority professionals need to continuously reflect on how to avoid stereotyping while at the same time paying attention to the subjective meaning of Islam.

Within the present study the rhetorical strategies may be seen as reflecting the interview context, in which the parents address the researcher as a representative of his/her perception of the secular Danish norms and society. This finding may apply to other professional relations in which the professional is a member of the major- ity culture. In such cases the professional need to reflect on the extent to which the dialog is influenced by this interpersonal context.

76 Culture & Psychology 22(1)

Conclusion

The present study offers insight into the process of parental identity formation and points to the influence of both public and political debate. In the case of Muslim parents living in the West, parental identity is highly influenced by the negative portrayals of Islam within the mass media and the hurt associated with this. The study documents how Muslim parents’ discourse is characterized by a duality in which rhetorical strategies are directed at countering the negative portrayal of Islam within the public and political discourse and at the same time end up repro- ducing central characteristics of this discourse. The implications of these findings are multilayered, but the perhaps most important implication is related to the notion of collateral damage. Findings from the present study may indicate that Muslim children in Denmark are experiencing the same hurt as Muslim children and youth living in Canada, the US, and Norway (Britto & Amer, 2007; Oppedal & Røysamb, 2007; Rousseau et al., 2013; Rousseau & Jamil, 2010). Further research should address this, and school-based interventions may be appropriate in order to counter the negative impact of media portrayals of Islam on Muslim children’s self-perception and cultural identity development.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, author- ship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

Abbas, T. (2005). Muslim Britain: Communities under pressure. London, UK: Zed books.

Balsano, A. B., & Sirin, S. R. (2007). Commentary on the special issue of ADS Muslim youth in the West: ‘‘Collateral damage’’ we cannot afford to disregard. Applied Development Science, 11(3), 178–183.

Bayoumi, M. (2008). How does it feel to be a problem?: Being young and Arab in America. New York, NY: Penguin Press.

Britto, P. R., & Amer, M. M. (2007). An exploration of cultural identity patterns and the

family context among Arab Muslim young adults in America. Applied Development Science, 11(3), 137–150.

Dalsbæk, B. (2010, June 9). Indvandrer-forældre svigter deres ansvar, Berlingske. Retrieved

from http://www.b.dk/kommentarer/indvandrer-foraeldre-svigter-deres-ansvar Ewing, K. P. (2008). Being and belonging: Muslims in the United States since 9/11. New

York, US: Russell Sage Foundation. Georgaca, E., & Avdi, E. (2012). Discourse analysis. In D. Harper, & A. R. Thompson

(Eds.), Qualitative research methods in mental health and psychotherapy: A guide for students and practitioners (pp. 147–163). Oxford, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

Jacobsen, B. A. (2013). Myths and facts on the future number of Muslims—A Danish case

study. Journal of Muslims in Europe, 2(1), 27–44. doi:10.1163/22117954-12341256

Dalgaard 77

Jacobsen, B. A. (2015). Islam and Muslims in Denmark. In M. Burchardt, & I. Michalowski (Eds.), After integration (pp. 171–186). Wiesbaden, Germany: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.

Jacobsen, S. J., Jensen, T. G., Vitus, K., & Weibel, K. (2012). Analysis of Danish media setting and framing of Muslims, Islam and racism. Copenhagen: Danish National Centre for Social Research Retrieved from http://www.ces.uc.pt/projectos/tolerace/pages/en/

publications/working-papers/march-2012.php Khader, N. (2012 October 17). Slap af med at råbe racist og opdrag dit barn. BT. Retrieved

from http://blogs.bt.dk/verdenifoelgekhader/2012/10/17/slap-af-med-at-rabe-racist-og-

opdrag-dit-barn/ McMullen, L. M. (2011). A discursive analysis of Teresa’s protocol enhancing oneself,

diminishing others. In K. Charmaz, & L. M. McMullen (Eds.), Five ways of doing quali- tative analysis: Phenomenological psychology, grounded theory, discourse analysis, narra-

tive research, and intuitive inquiry (pp. 205–223). New York, NY: Guilford Press. Nielsen, J. S. (2011). Setting the scene. Muslims in Denmark. In J. S. Nielsen (Ed.), Islam in

Denmark: The challenge of diversity (pp. 115–142). New York, US: Lexington Books.

Nielsen, K. (2007). The qualitative research interview and issues of knowledge. Nordic Psychology, 59(3), 210.

Oppedal, B., & Røysamb, E. (2007). Young Muslim immigrants in Norway: An epidemio-

logical study of their psychosocial adaptation and internalizing problems. Applied Development Science, 11(3), 112–125.

Potter, J. (1996). Representing reality: Discourse, rhetoric and social construction. London, UK: Sage.

Potter, J. (2003). Discourse analysis and discursive psychology. In P. M. Camic, J. E. Rhodes, & L. Yardley (Eds.), Qualitative research in psychology: Expanding perspec- tives in methodology and design (pp. 73–94). Washington, DC: American Psychological

Association. Potter, J., & Wetherell, M. (1987). Discourse and social psychology: Beyond attitudes and

behavior. London, UK: Sage.

Rousseau, C., Ferradji, T., Mekki-Berrada, A., & Jamil, U. (2013). North African Muslim immigrant families in Canada giving meaning to and coping with the war on terror. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, 11(2), 136–156.

Rousseau, C., Hassan, G., Moreau, N., & Thombs, B. D. (2011). Perceived discrimination and its association with psychological distress among newly arrived immigrants before and after September 11, 2001. American Journal of Public Health, 101(5), 909.

Rousseau, C., & Jamil, U. (2008). Meaning of 9/11 for two Pakistani communities: From

external intruders to the internalisation of a negative self-image. Anthropology and Medicine, 15(3), 163–174.

Rousseau, C., & Jamil, U. (2010). Muslim families’ understanding of, and reaction to, ‘the

war on terror’. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 80(4), 601–609. Schmidt, G. (2004). Islamic identity formation among young Muslims: The case of Denmark,

Sweden and the United States. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 24(1), 31–45.

Schumacher, G., & van Kersbergen, K. (2014). Do mainstream parties adapt to the welfare chauvinism of populist parties? Party Politics, 20(5), 1–13.

Sirin, S. R., & Fine, M. (2007). Hyphenated selves: Muslim American youth negotiating identities on the fault lines of global conflict. Applied Development Science, 11(3),

151–163.

78 Culture & Psychology 22(1)

Yılmaz, F. (2012). Right-wing hegemony and immigration: How the populist far-right achieved hegemony through the immigration debate in Europe. Current Sociology, 60(3), 368–381.

Author biography

Nina T Dalgaard, M.Sc. in Psychology, is a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at Copenhagen University. Her research focuses on the transgenera- tional transmission of trauma in Middle Eastern refugee families with exile-born children. Her main areas of interest are clinical child psychology, attachment secur- ity, intra-family trauma communication, and the cultural embedment of childhood, child-rearing practices, and family coping.

Dalgaard 79