Influence of Secular Higher Education on Religious Identity of Emerging Adults: A Case Study in Education City - Qatar

In the sociology of religion, secularization theories consequently have been at the center of discussion throughout the twentieth century. Hence, understanding the modes in which secularization operates and how it unfolds in varying ethnic, social, cultural and religious contexts and institutions becomes imperative given our globalized world today. Secular HEIs such as universities provide a platform for the interaction of a diverse group of very young and emerging adults from varying social, cultural and religious backgrounds from across the world. This study assesses religious identity in emerging adults through their university experience in Education City – Qatar through the secularization theories related to ontology, belief liberalization theory, plausibility theory and cognitive dissonance theory.The study employs a qualitative case study of three HEI's located in EC; The College of Islamic Studies under Hamad Bin Khalifa University (CIS-HBKU), branch campuses of Georgetown University (GU) and Weill-Cornell Medical College (WCMC). The three institutions are secular in the sense that it does not acknowledge ontology grounded in religion in its educational activities; however, they engage with religion in different ways. In the case of CIS-HBKU, the object of study itself is religion without claims to being a religious institution itself. GU, unlike CIS-HBKU and WCMC, falls between being a Jesuit institution and a secular institution based on its mission statement and founding values and principles.The study finds that while foreign secular branch HEIs stand as social institutions planted in a culture, religion and people different from what it was intended and designed for, with relation to Muslim religious identity, the social institution, the curricula it teaches, the learningenvironment it provides and its emphasis on critical analysis only strengthened the sample's religious identity. The respondents instead benefitted from the environment EC provides leading them to take ownership of their own Muslim identity according to what made sense to them. Furthermore, parental religiousness appeared to be the utmost importance in religious socialization while Islamic Studies, the only point of formal Islamic education for most children in secondary school was the most corrosive to Muslim religious identity.