The Sociolinguistic Status of Islamic English: A Register Approach

This paper investigates the special use of English by Muslim scholars in different fields of en-quiry, which has been termed Islamic English by some. The data consists of several pieces of evidence from (i) different kinds of publications in the UK, KSA, Malaysia, and South Africa, (ii) international participant feedback in response to an earlier presentation in a Greek Symposium about the same topic to which this paper is a followup in essence, and (iii) participant observations of Muslims' conversations worldwide. The results indicate that Islamic English is not only real as much as Biblical English is, but it is also a continuum with several varieties ranging from the light to the heavy. It has certain universal features, including lexis, grammar, topic, style, audience, codeswitching, and Arabicity, thus, marking it as a register, variety, or dialect of English which expresses their social and cultural identity. In the conclusion, the paper recommends teaching students Islamic English from the perspective of social and cultural identity.