Learning to be Muslim: A case study from Morocco

This is a study of how Islam is locally perceived by men in a traditional Moroccan city. Through the use of interviews, case studies, and participant observation, the religious perceptions and practices of two generations of Moroccan men were examined and compared to understand their religious views and to determine the degree to which their religious worldviews have changed or remained constant. In particular, attention was given to the various forms of religious education the men experienced. It was by observing how the men were educated religiously that their Islamic perceptions were understood. Religious education included both formal education received in schools and non-formal education as experienced through the observance and practice of religious rituals such as prayer, fasting in the month of Ramadan, and the sheep sacrifice (`id El Kebir).; This study found that the underlying religious perceptions of the younger and older generations of men varied little in spite of many observable changes in the culture at large. Religious practice was found to be nearly uniform as well except that older men were observed to pray more frequently than do the younger men.; As to the men's religious perceptions, attention was given to the meanings they attached to religious rituals and to the primary components of their religious worldviews. For example, the men's views of salvation in Islam were both found to be a multi-layered, instrumental, works-oriented system in which spiritual points of merit called hassenets were an important ingredient. Relatively little has been written about hassenets in anthropological literature to date.; The religious education the men received strongly emphasized proper practice of religious rituals (orthopraxy) as compared to correct belief (orthodoxy). This correlated well with their understanding that religion is a test of one's faithfulness in correctly performing religiously prescribed behaviors. The primary method of religious instruction through which the men learned about Islam was understood to be ritual practice. In fact, even formal education was found to be a type of religious ritual.