2 research outputs found
Being Muslim, Performing Mexicanness:Religious Identity Negotiations among Muslim Immigrants in Mexico
No full textMuslimsk migration til Mexico anses for at være et nyt fænomen på trods af dens lange historie med islamisk-iberisk indflydelse og muslimsk tilstedeværelse i landet som følge af den spanske erobring, slaveri, arabisk diaspora, globalisering og lokal omvendelse. I det 21. århundrede,islamiseringens æra, er 'nytilkomne i den muslimske immigrantbefolkning mere racemæssigt og etnisk forskelligartede end dem, der har været i Mexico i længere tid. For det meste i Mexico City og immigrerer ofte gennem ægteskab med lokale borgere. Man ved dog lidt om, hvem de er, hvad de gør og tænker. Det skyldes, at der ikke har været nogen væsentlig dybdegående forskning itilstedeværelsen af muslimske immigranter. Ud fra en tværfaglig tilgang er det primære formål med denne forskning derfor at undersøge, hvordan de tilpasser sig den mexicanske livsstil og deres erfaringer med at være muslimer i landet. Hovedfokus er på oplevelsen af identitetsforhandling af muslimske immigranter i Mexico. Dette ved at adressere dimensioner af metaperceptioner og religiøse praksisser i ethvert liv, på tværs af personlige og sociale domæner, mens de udfører hvad jeg konceptualiserer som mexicanskhed. I stedet for at antage, at deres religiøse karakteristika er af vedvarende betydning, er en bedre mulighed at overveje de specifikke midler, hvormed indvandrere forstår eller demonstrerer religiøs betydning og identifikation i daglige indbyrdes forhold. For at nå målene med denne forskning anvendte jeg en etnografisk tilgang bestående afdybdegående semistrukturerede interviews med 43 informanter, deltagerobservation, dokumentanalyse, uformelle samtaler og indsamling af visuelt materiale (fotografier og video) i løbet af 12 måneder. - Feltarbejde i Mexico i 2021. Mit oprindelige bidrag til viden er, at jeg var banebrydende for forskningen i den muslimske befolkning i Mexico ved at samle alle immigranterunder betegnelsen 'muslimske immigranter' i sig selv, idet jeg anerkendte den mangfoldighed, der eksisterer uden for Mellemøstens kilder, mens den enkeltes identifikationsbestridelse stadig overvejes. I det historiske kapitel brugte min forskning de nutidige årsager, der bragte muslimer til Mexico, såvel som dokumentation af den hurtigt voksende ḥalāl-interesse. Blandt hovedresultaterne er følgende: Med hensyn til metaperceptioner hævder jeg, at på grund af Mexicos imødekommende kultur over for udlændinge, den dybt indlejrede historie, der værdsætter udlændinge i Mestizaje-doktrinen, manglen på allerede eksisterende ideer og personlige erfaringer med muslimer, og manglen på politiske debatter omkring dem. Oplevede disse muslimer meget positive og imødekommende holdninger med deres ikke-stigmatiseredemuslimske identitet, og demonstrerede næsten ingen eksisterende islamofobi bortset fra en lille intersektionalitet af diskrimination for at være mørklødet. På den anden side ses muslimsk identitet som eksotisk, rig, unik og fremmed. I det daglige liv hævder jeg, at på trods af at det er ret udfordrende at opfylde religiøse praksisser og forpligtelser under visse omstændigheder i etkatolsk-dominerende miljø. Især når de lokale muslimske samfund ikke kan hjælpe, flytter muslimer ikke til Mexico ved at holde sig meget konservative og traditionel religiøs af opfattelse og rigide holdninger. De er meget integreret i værtssamfund ved at udføre mexicanskhed, hovedsageligt gennem sprog, interkulturelt ægteskab, mad og kultur. Endelig anvendes forskelligeidentitetsforhandlingsstrategier, primært for at oplyse lokalbefolkningen om deres religiøse identitet, i modsætning til assimilering på grund af trusler eller stigmatisering. Dette indikerer, at værtsmedlemmer ikke udgør muslimer som en trussel mod nationen, derfor følte disse udlændinge sig ikke tvunget til at radikalisere deres tro for at sikre legitimitet.Muslim migration to Mexico is considered a new phenomenon, despite the longstanding Islamic-Iberian influence and Muslim presence in the country as a result of the Spanish conquest, slavery, Arab diaspora, globalisation, and local conversion. In the 21st century, the era in which Islamisation became visible, the ‘newcomers’ in the Muslim immigrant population are more racially and ethnically diverse than those who have been in Mexico for a longer time. They mostly settle in Mexico City and frequently immigrate through marriage with local citizens. However, little is known about who they are and what they do and think. This is because no significant in-depth research has been conducted on the presence of Muslim immigrants. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, the primary purpose of this research was to therefore examine how they adapt to the Mexican lifestyle and their experiences as Muslims in the country. The primary focus was on identity negotiation, which involved examining their metaperceptions and everyday religious practices across personal and social domains while performing what I conceptualize as Mexicanness. Rather than assuming that their religious characteristics are of ongoing importance, a better option was to consider the specific means by which immigrants understand or demonstrate religious meaning and identification in daily interrelationships. To achieve these aims, I employed an ethnographic approach consisting of in-depth semi-structured interviews with 43 informants, participant-observation, document analysis, informal conversations, and the collection of visual material (photographs and videos) during a 12-month period of fieldwork in Mexico in 2021. My original contribution to knowledge is to pioneer research on the Muslim population in Mexico by considering all immigrants together under the label of ‘Muslim immigrants’, and recognising the diversity that exists beyond Middle East sources while still considering each individual’s contestation of identity. In the historical chapter, my research expanded on the contemporary reasons that brought Muslims to Mexico and documented thefast-growing interest in ḥalāl. The main findings were as follows: concerning metaperceptions, I argue that because of Mexico’s welcoming culture toward foreigners, the deep-embedded history that values foreigners in the doctrine of mestizaje, the lack of pre-existing ideas and personal experience with Muslims, and the absence of inflammatory political debates, these Muslims experienced highly positive and welcoming attitudes that helped forge the creation of an unstigmatisedMuslim identity. Islamophobia was almost non-existent except for a smallintersectionality of discrimination for being dark-skinned. On the other hand, the Muslim identity is viewed as exotic, rich, unique, and foreign. I argue that even though it is sometimes rather challenging to fulfil religious practices and obligations in a catholic-dominant environment, particularly when local Muslim communities are too small to provide assistance, Muslims do not move to Mexico holding very conservative, traditional religious views and rigid attitudes. They are very much integrated into host societies by performing Mexicanness, mainly through language, inter-cultural marriage, food, and culture. Finally, various identity negotiation strategies aredeployed, primarily to educate locals about their religious identity, as opposed to assimilation due to threat or stigma. This indicates that host members do not view Muslims as a threat to their nation, therefore these foreigners did not feel compelled to radicalise their faith in order to secure legitimacy
Understanding the functionality of transcript diversity
No full textRecent years have seen a huge increase in the amount of genomic DNA
being sequenced from a wide variety of organisms, giving us an unprecedented
insight into the molecular diversity seen in nature. As a
result a host of methods have been developed, both experimental and
computational, to understand the functional significance of such diversity
and how it relates to organismal and environmental complexity.
In this thesis I use comparative approaches to explore two areas of
molecular biology where there is evidence for large amounts of transcript
diversity. Firstly, I explore the unprecedented view of microbial
sequence diversity offered by metagenomic sequencing projects, using
sequence similarity and adapted genomic context methods to quantify
the amount of functional novelty in these samples. Secondly, I look
at the transcript diversity generated by alternative splicing. I develop
methods to detect and visualise alternative splicing events and apply
these to the detection of conserved alternative splicing events
