Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on Dutch and Belgian converts doing hijra (Islamic migration) to Morocco. Not having to worry about halal food was envisioned a key benefit of their migration. Yet, once in Morocco, food gets surrounded with paradoxes. I argue that the converts perform Europeanness through food.

Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on food practices among white Dutch and Belgian converts who have made hijra (Islamic migration) to Morocco. I argue that the converts perform 'Europeanness' through food, resulting in a mixed Euro/Moroccan food culture. Expecting simple access to a halal diet as an important benefit of living in a Muslim majority country, the converts find a perplexing reality. On the one hand, they tend to embrace, even idealize, Moroccan cooking and eating habits. The traditional Moroccan marketplace (souq) for example, is incorporated in white upper-class hipster culture narratives of climate consciousness, organic eating, alongside reverence for the Prophet (sunnah). At the same time, the quality of particular ingredients, shortage of European products, and different hygiene standards can be a source of frustration. Disillusionment and home-sickness can be met with attempts to get a hold of European products and ingredients to create familiar dishes. Others set up restaurants, and businesses dealing in European foods. Whether positive of negative, local food practices are often assessed in reference to Islamic ethics. I reference the work of Ann Stoler (2002) on class, race, and imperialism and particularly her notion of the 'sensory nature of memory' to examine how the privileged position 'white' converts had in the West, (Özüyrek 2014, Galonnier 2015, Roozen-Soltar 2012) plays out after their migration to Morocco, a country with a colonial past.