Arab Muslim social workers between the Sharia and Western interventions and their coping mechanisms

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study of 34 religious, traditional, and secular Arab Muslim social workers in Israel traces the dilemmas caused by potential clashes between their professional and religious values. The findings suggest that although all the interviewees were aware of such clashes, only the religious ones adopted coping strategies to address them. The traditional workers regarded the conflicts in universal moral terms, and the secular workers distanced themselves from their religion. None of the respondents were familiar with the Islamization of social work in the Arab world that might have helped them resolve their dilemmas.

KEYWORDS:

• Arab Muslim social workers
• Israel
• sharia
• coping mechanisms
• Islamization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).