Paper short abstract:

I focus on South Asian Muslim men living in Barcelona. Specifically, I explore how precarious housing and work shape these men’s bodily routines and etiquette and arouse their concerns for religious piety. Thus, my aim is to discuss the relationship between religion, place, dwelling, and belonging.

Paper long abstract:

In the past decades, research on Muslims in Europe has focused on mosques and religious schools. While this focus has provided valuable data on the institutionalization of Islam in this context, much less is known on how the vicissitudes of life shape the ordinary experience of Islam in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal or Spain. In this paper I focus on South Asian Muslim men who live and work in Barcelona. Drawing on six months of fieldwork, I address how the conditions of labor migration in the city constitute the basis for these men's religious practices and discourses. Specifically, I explore how precarious housing and work shape these men's bodily routines and etiquette and arouse their concerns for religious piety. Thus, I argue that, paradoxically, Barcelona becomes an adverse and simultaneously suitable environment for pursuing a pious life based on awareness of daily difficulties and practices of individual and collective care. Ultimately, my aim is to discuss the relationship between religion, place, dwelling, and belonging.