In late 2012, Edinburgh University organised what promised to be a unique outreach event for academics researching Muslims in Scotland.

Hosted by Glasgow Central Mosque, the event started off on the wrong foot. Mosque leaders had set a partition wall, separating male and female attendees.

While university organisers were dumbfounded, they did not dare to challenge the arrangement. It was to take a young Muslim to contest that gender segregation had no space at a university-sponsored event, no matter what rules the mosque wished to follow. This brave Muslim is just one of many who work hard to bring different communities together but rarely make the headlines.

Fast forward almost four years and the ongoing rift within the Pakistani community for control of Glasgow Central Mosque reminds us the battle for Islam is, ultimately, the battle of a generation of Scottish Muslims.

The cultural struggles faced by younger, liberal Muslims underpin the gradual process of making it a Scottish experience to be a Muslim in Scotland. Academic research has captured this process and has shed light on the changing face of Islam in Scotland.

Read More: Mona Siddique on how business vested interests run Scottish mosques.

Pictured: Glasgow Central Mosque

The Herald: Glasgow MosqueYounger Muslims are finding it more and more common to uphold dual Scottish and Muslim identities, in ways that complement, rather than contradict, one another.

Scottish Muslims have strong national sentiments, which go hand in hand with a sense of being part of a global community united by Islam.

This process is part of a generational change that has seen older members of the Pakistani community cling on ethnic identities and religious practices infused by cultural norms that are often out of touch with the local life experiences of Scottish-born Muslims. The training of local imams and open door events at some mosques demonstrate the changing needs of new Scottish Muslim generations. Similarly, the ethnically diverse Scottish Muslim community – for example 10 per cent are Arabs – requires more heterogeneous mosque representations, which are often entirely dominated by Pakistanis.

Notwithstanding ongoing issues of discrimination, which Muslims face in every European society, polls have long shown that Muslim integration in Scotland is facilitated by lower settlement numbers, lower fears of terrorism and quite welcoming social attitudes.

The Scottish body politic, particularly its relaxed attitudes towards immigration and its opposition to "aggressive" foreign policies, has certainly helped shape Muslim feelings of belonging to the country.

A diffuse historical amnesia about the key role played by Scotland in the Empire and a shared feeling of "oppression" at the hands of the British "rulers" have also promoted a narrative of Scottish tolerance among South Asian minorities.

The absence of widespread segregation, aside from Pollokshields and Govanhill in Glasgow, is positively coupled with high levels of self-employment among Scottish Pakistanis and, overall, higher employment rates than Pakistanis have in some key English regions.

As a prominent Glaswegian Muslim told me last year "there must be something about Scotland" if this small country boasts both the first Muslim MP, Mohammad Sarwar, and the first Muslim councillor, Bashir Maan, in Great Britain.

The high educational aspirations some Muslim families have for their children are shaping the contours of a community that can pursue ambitions other than money alone. However, some Scottish Muslims lament tensions with family members, who still prioritise financial stability over educational achievements, may prevent a number of youngsters from entering education.

The role of women holds the key to the future of the Scottish Muslim community. While many Scottish Muslim women have benefitted from a "Western" positive attitude to gender equality, many others still need to juggle between cultural expectations of a "respectable and desexualised" femininity at home and the multifaceted social experiences that are available in the wider community. In this respect, the opposition that a young liberal Muslim woman faced from more conservative young Muslims, when running as president of a university Islamic Student Society a few years ago, exemplifies the challenges that still grip the Scottish Muslim community.

The recent disputes at Glasgow Central Mosque and the campaign for reform led by Aamer Anwar represent the call for equality within the Muslim community by a generation who feels both Scottish and Muslim. These issues will continue to make the headlines in the near future but will likely fade away in the next generations. Urdu-speaking mosques will slowly become obsolete. Little by little, Pakistani-dominated committees will become a distant memory. A crossbred Scottish Muslim community is in the making and will eventually change the face of Islam in Scotland.

Stefano Bonino is a lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences at Northumbria University.