Treating Religion as a Personal Choice: Opportunities and Dilemmas Involved in the Religious Identity Constructions of Turkish Muslim Immigrants

Abstract

Studies examining the implications of treating religion as a personal choice have often focused on whether this individualistic approach to religion has undermined or strengthened religious commitment and identity. My findings, which are based on qualitative in-depth interviews with 20 Turkish Muslim immigrants living in the United States, show that treating religion as a personal choice does not simply intensify or weaken religious identities but instead generates opportunities while simultaneously leading to dilemmas surrounding individual religious identity constructions. Furthermore, my findings concerning the dilemmas arising from this particular approach to religion show that individuals can still remain attached to religious authority structures despite repeatedly mobilizing a discourse that signals autonomy via narratives of “choice.” This finding revises assumptions about how religious identities take shape in the cultural context of religious individualism and contributes to the study of Muslim immigrant religious identities.