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- Convenors:
-
Jonathan Galton
(UCL)
Fahad Rahman (University of Oxford)
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- Formats:
- Panel
- Mode:
- Face-to-face
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 24 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Madrid
Short Abstract:
How do Muslims in the global north who practice Islam with a focus on inclusivity and diversity engage with the Islamic discursive tradition and how do these practices interact with wider discourses of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)?
Long Abstract:
This panel explores how multiply minoritised Muslim communities in the global north construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct the Islamic discursive tradition. Anthropologists are increasingly interested in alternative forms of piety within inclusive Muslim groups that are based on empowering those traditionally marginalised within Islamic and other social contexts on grounds of gender, sexuality, race or disability (among others). We ask whether and to what extent these practices and discourses of inclusion address different forms of diversity and intersectional identities? Are any new forms of exclusion are built into emerging inclusionary practices? For example, while there is an increasing focus on the intersections of Islam with gender and sexuality, other exclusions, notably race-based ones, remain under-addressed.
Meanwhile, how does the growing emphasis on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the global north impinge on different Muslim communities? Within the Western context Muslims form minority communities that are simultaneously considered beneficiaries of DEI initiatives and threats to the success of such initiatives. We therefore ask, for example, whether the empowerment of women and queer people link to new forms of Islamophobia that categorises Muslims as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ based on the perceived threat they pose to the rights of women and queer people.
This session will hence explore inclusion from the perspectives of the ‘doing and undoing’ of religious, secular, and (homo)nationalist discourses with a focus on how they interact with exclusionary processes.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 24 July, 2024, -Gloria Calabresi (Universidad de Almería)
Paper short abstract:
In this paper we will analyse Andalusia's relations with Islam, its history, its memory, its social, cultural and symbolic aspects. We will analyze with an anthropological lens, the case of Granada and Almeria and the practices that the Islamic communities carry out in this territory
Paper long abstract:
It is estimated that some 25 million Muslims live in the Member States of the European Community, about 5% of the European population. Three quarters are already European citizens, either by naturalisation or by birth. These figures are not threatening. However, there is a widespread feeling that Europe is being overrun by a Muslim population and Islam that is perceived as incompatible with Western culture and values (Eidemiller et al., 2019; Gidley & Everett, 2022; Gusciute et al., 2021). Sociological studies divide Muslims in Europe into the following categories (El Quaroui, 2020): native Muslims who have lived in Europe for many centuries. Students and executives from Muslim countries. Muslims who came to Western Europe for a limited period as migrant workers in the 1950s and 1960s. Native European Muslims, born in Europe to immigrant parents. Asylum seekers and refugees (El Quaroui, 2020). The case of Andalusia is different from what many call European Islam: the claim of the territory of Granada as the cradle of Spanish culture inherited from the identity of the Caliphate of Al-Andalus is beginning to be present in the common imaginary and in the historical memory of Andalusia. We will analyze, with an anthropological lens, different Muslim communities present in Granada and Almeria to show what kind of practices they carry out and whether they can be considered inclusive.
Raquel Gil Carvalheira (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa) Teresa Costa (CRIA Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia)
Paper short abstract:
This paper focuses on how Islamic education in small mosques on Lisbon’s outskirts is a strategy for acquiring religious capital for upward social mobility and socioeconomic inclusion.
Paper long abstract:
The anthropological literature on Muslims in Europe often dismisses the role of Islamic knowledge in the production of social differentiation and in/exclusion among Muslims. In Portugal, where a diverse Muslim community exists, Guinea-Bissau-origin Muslims understand Islamic knowledge as essential for upward social mobility. This paper focuses on how Islamic education in small mosques located on Lisbon’s outskirts is a strategy for acquiring social and religious capital that has been historically in the hands of other Muslim groups. Acquiring such knowledge allows Guinea-Bissau-origin Muslims, both women and men, to seek recognition within a wider Muslim community and, simultaneously, show they value Islamic education as essential in pursuing better life conditions. This article explores religious education as social capital and its role in the production of citizenship and social inclusion.
Fahad Rahman (University of Oxford)
Paper short abstract:
Inclusive Muslims in the UK have been doing and undoing how inclusion is pursued within both the Islamic and secular contexts they inhabit. I will be exploring how homonationalism and homophobia interact with inclusive Muslim experiences, discourses, and activism around Pride events.
Paper long abstract:
Inclusive Muslim communities have a focus on constructing religious rituals, beliefs, and identities that are queer affirming. The strong emphasis on diversity, inclusion, and equality within inclusive Muslim spaces in the UK reflects the intersectional needs of religious Muslims with queer identities. While allying with secular and non-Muslim queer communities is an important goal, the experiences and discourses of exclusion based on religious, racial, and cultural differences have led to the undoing of queer solidarities and redoing of racialised Muslim solidarities.
This paper will explore the experiences, discourses, and activism of inclusive Muslims with two different Pride events. Firstly, the East End Gay Pride (EEGP), which was planned to be held in 2011 but was cancelled after sustained criticism and activism, led by queer Muslims, around the homonationalist motivations of the organisers. Secondly, I will discuss the varied experiences of queer and inclusive Muslims with the annual London Pride. Overall, this paper will highlight the wide spectrum of opinions and approaches that inclusive Muslims demonstrate regarding the concept and practice of Pride in contemporary UK. Inclusive Muslims have been undoing Islamophobic exclusions in Pride events while redoing Pride within an Islamic framework.
Jonathan Galton (UCL)
Paper short abstract:
I examine the popular narrative that the Left ‘betrays’ queer Muslims by failing to critique ‘Islamic homophobia’. Drawing on ethnographic interviews and media analysis I explain where this trope comes from, how it is used, and inspect the complex realities underpinning it.
Paper long abstract:
“Islamic homophobia is empowered by Leftist silence”, a recently published article declares. Its author is not, as might be imagined, an alt-right journalist tapping into the now-commonplace rhetoric of homonationalism whereby queers are integrated into the liberal-nationalist imaginary to the exclusion of racialised (and especially Muslim) others. Instead, he is a gay Ex-Muslim with an apparently sincere sense of grievance at the betrayal of a loosely-defined ‘Left’ that diligently calls out homophobia when it emerges from Evangelical Christians or the Far Right, but turns a blind eye when it is revealed among Muslim communities.
This paper draws on ethnographic research to examine this increasingly popular narrative of betrayal and locates it within a wider caricature of a Left (in the UK and beyond) that has a problematically close relationship with Muslim communities. I show how this caricature is deployed to specific political ends, notably by the political right. However, I do not simply dismiss this caricature, but rather dissect it to examine the various strands of ‘Left-Muslim engagement’ in more detail. Paying attention to the ‘doing’ and ‘undoing’ of this trope, I argue can help us navigate a range of uncomfortable debates and support a quest for more meaningful inclusion.
Khaliden Nas
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the exclusionary responses of queer people online in the Global North when ‘local’ artists venture down to a country in the Arab region for a performance.
Paper long abstract:
In early 2023, pop star Beyonce Knowles-Carter accepted an invitation (that came with a 24 million USD fee) to perform at the unveiling of Atlantis The Royal resort in Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah.
Subsequently, queer pop music fans across social media parsed out the ethical conundrum this decision presented; asking questions such as:
- Why would a pop star, promoting an album indebted to the sounds of queer and Black pioneers of dance music, accept an offer to perform in a country where that queer identity is deemed illegal?
- What responsibility does an artist and public figure have to revolutionary messages in their art when they also operate as a product to be consumed by a global music market?
- What of the queer and Emarati fan who is erased from the outraged narratives of queer people in the Global North?
This paper focuses in on the online responses of queer people in the Global North when ‘local’ artists venture down for a performance. Particularly, I explore the development of new exclusionary processes amongst queer online communities in the Global North through implied narratives of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ queers- ultimately questioning their relation to narratives of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ muslims and the perceived threat they pose to the rights of women and queer people.