The present paper is based on my field research, carried out
from June to September 1984, and June 1985 to February
1986. I have already published reports on Arabs and Muslims
in Canada, the actualities of whom are yet little known and who,
I observe, suffer more often than not from the prejudice against,
them [KATAKURA 1986: 206-215, 1988a : 681-726] .
In this paper, I intend to focus on Egyptian Muslims in
Vancouver, describing and analising the process and the
characteristics of their adaptation to a non-Islamic environment.
The materials were collected through personal interviews and
observations of 50 household members living in Vancouver.
After introductory chapters on outline of the fieldwork
(Chapter 1) and on the social and historical background of
immigrants of Egyptian Muslims, presenting data on the sociodemographic
features of 50 households (Chapter 2), the pattern
of their social networks are discussed in Chapter 3. I examine
1) the social relationships based on Egyptians' encounters with
other Egyptians, non-Egyptian Arabs, other Muslims from Africa,
Europe, Asia etc., Canadians of French or British origin, and
Jews in Vancouver; and 2) the blood-related network in Canada,
Egypt, the USA, and other Arab countries.
In Chapter 4 I examine whether the Egyptian Muslims in
Vancouver change or not their traditional behavioral patterns or
values in everyday life. For this analysis, three aspects of their life
are used : 1) language and education; 2) life habits such as food,
drinking, marriage and funerals; and 3) religious consciousness
and practices revealed in fasting, praying, alms giving and
attitudes towards Christmas celebrations, in Canada.
Through the observation and the analysis above, we can
summarize the result of this research as follows
In terms of the way of adaptation to non-Islamic society,
Egyptian muslims are categorized into three groups, 1) secular
assimilatists, who intend to identify themselves as Canadians,
by adapting Western values and behavior. 2) cultural nationalists,
who cherish Egyptian culture, including Islam as a part
of Egyptian culture; and 3) Islamic transnationalists who identify
themselves as Muslims, neither as Egyptians, nor as Canadians.
The approximate ratio of the present population of each
group is 25 %, 45 % and 30 %, respectively. However, the
number of Islamic transnationalists is increasing these years,
because fairly good numbers of secular assimilatists and
cultural nationalists tend to shift to the Islamic transnationalist
group.
Thus there is a trend of further Islamization of Egyptian
muslims in Vancouver because of their becoming more conscious
of being muslims in non-Islamic environment and because of
world-wide Islamization which is presently prevailing in and
out of Canada.
異文化環境のアラブムスリム : ヴァンクーヴァーのエジプト人ムスリムの事例研究
KH014_4_002.pdf
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