Do Canadian Muslim Youth Rebel?

Abstract

With the rise of terrorist attacks in European countries, the topic of secondgeneration<br />Muslims living in the West becomes heated more than ever. Secondgeneration<br />Muslims are born and raised in Canada and usually have multiple<br />ethnic backgrounds. They need to deal with multiple identities as well as being<br />young, which comes with its own challenges. For the purpose of this paper,<br />seven in-depth interviews were conducted on young Muslim men and women.<br />This paper seeks to illuminate issues of Muslim youth rebellion by asking whom<br />they rebel against. The paper examines how and why in rare instances a form<br />of rebellion by Muslim youth has led to terrorism. This study shows that not all<br />the religious and cultural identity crises of Muslim youth leads to violence and<br />terrorism. The majority of Muslim youth rebellion is directed against their parents'<br />cultures, rather than against Western liberal values or Islam.