Paper short abstract:

This article explores the attempt of Bangladeshi Muslims to establish an Islamic cemetery in Rome, reflecting a need for adequate burial space and a sense of place belonging. Ethnographic fieldwork will reveal intergenerational home-making strategies and the challenges of state monoculturalism

Paper long abstract:

This study intends to investigate the efforts of the Bangladeshi Muslim diaspora to establish an Islamic cemetery in Rome. As an increasingly rooted – and therefore ageing – presence, the community stands at a critical juncture in its settlement, experiencing a growing need for dedicated burial spaces. The absence of such areas often implies the repatriation of the deceased, a complex and costly process that inflicts emotional turmoil on families. This case holds particular significance as it reflects broader challenges of building Muslim cemeteries on European soil, generally accompanied by tensions regarding Islam in public spaces. While hosting a Muslim population of nearly three million worshippers, Italy impels Islamic believers to confront a multitude of legal and cultural challenges to the free exercise of religion and public visibility. Moreover, the issue highlights how new generations tend to be regarded as outsiders, following a Muslim-foreigner paradigm that marginalises their instances and needs. In this context, the present study delves into the intricate dynamics of “deathscapes”, encompassing places of death, final dispositions and sites of remembrance and representation. Such issues bear on complex mechanisms of power and necropolitics, and ultimately shed light on the negotiation between home-making and "domestication". Home-making practices by diasporic "others" invariably elicit domestication responses in the name of monoethnic coherence from "governmental subjects", who assert their authority in the name of state monoculturalism, effectively enacting forms of localized “necropower”. These dynamics are intertwined with broader narratives of otherness and power relations, necessitating an in-depth exploration.