Muslims and Druze in Israel are two understudied Arab conservative religious minorities, undergoing a massive process of modernization. Although both religious groups are very similar in their conservative lifestyle and norms, they largely differ in their religious contexts and practices, as well as their levels of involvement in the Israeli discourse- relating to differences in their political positions towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Combining both quantitative and qualitative data that was gathered as part of the Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective (YARG) international research project, the paper outlines the general characteristics of current religious subjectivities of Druze and Muslim young adults, as emerged among the students of our research sample, separately and comparatively. Specifically, basing on findings from the Faith Q-Sort (FQS), which is a new research instrument to the study of religious worldviews (Wulff, 2019), and semi-structured interviews, the paper focuses on the ways in which intercultural encounters, with other religious minorities but mainly with the Jewish majority, facilitate contemporary manifestations of secularization processes among young adult Muslim and Druze students in Israel. The effects of both groups` position as Arab minorities in Israel on the results of these encounters will also be discussed.
Altogether, the paper presents the direct and indirect ways through which multiculturalism, especially in a politically conflictual society, contributes to the creation of secular subjectivities among young adult religious minority students.