Matrimonial Websites and Young Muslims - Research Paper Example

I conducted a total of eight semi-structured interviews with young British Pakistani Muslims aged between 25 to 35 years of age. The themes that emerged from the interview that shed some light on the issue under exploration are 1) Incentives; 2) globalization and modernity; 3) disadvantages and; 4) arranged marriage. The results obtained from the interviews indicate that these users have resorted to using online matrimonial mainly due to the impacts of globalization and modernity as well as parental control.

Traditional values and norms such as arranged marriages have been on a decrease by young British Muslims (Mohiuddin 2007).Muslims are the largest religious minority in Europe with almost every European country having an applicable number of Muslims living within its premises (Cesari 2014). It is estimated that two-three million Muslims live in the UK (Census 2011). It was in the late 1960s that Muslims immigrated to the UK. Their reason for coming to the country was employed in order to support their families or because working in agriculture was no longer a job that produced sufficient income (Nielsen 2004).

When Muslims migrated to the country for employment, they arrived with the Islamic cultural norms and values, which many first-generation Asian Muslims attempted to enforce and pass onto their children (Cesari 2014). Contemporary Western Islamic author Tariq Ramadan (2003) identified the tensions that arose between first-generation Muslims and later generations concerning their cultural and Islamic teachings. This struggle was somewhat balanced in terms of tradition and Western cultural norms.

Marriage is one of the many struggles many young Muslims faced and still are facing in modern society today. Traditionally, marriage in Islam was a method where one's parents got involved in arranging a suitable partner for their child, as parents or guardians know the child’s best character (Hasso 2011). In modern times, Muslims are increasingly turning away from this traditional method, favoring the internet to find their potential spouse (Hasso 2011).OutlineThis study shall firstly explore literature related discussions on marriage in Islam, Marriage in Pakistani culture, globalization, westernization and modernity, Internet and online matrimonial sites.

The second part of this study shall focus on the method used, which was the use of the semi-structured methodology in order to obtain individuals’ views and opinions on marriage.