Paper short abstract:

Muslims refugees living in non-Muslim countries face uncertainties as they age and contemplate death. This paper examines how cemetery establishment as place-making is an essential way in which Muslim refugees in the US create a more certain future for themselves both in this world and in the next.

Paper long abstract:

Muslims who have experienced forced migration often face uncertainties as they age and contemplate death. Many Muslim migrants wish to be returned to their homelands for burial, in part because they view burial in Muslim contexts as important to accruing the blessings that will help them on Judgment Day. But what happens when repatriation is impossible? Based on extensive ethnographic research, this paper examines how Muslim refugees living in Pennsylvania have reconsidered the final dispositions of their bodies, seeking new spaces and models to guide them in their decision-making about life and death in “ghurba” (a foreign place). Some see themselves as having a renewed relationship with major figures of the Muslim past since they, like the Prophet Muhammad, will be buried not in their homeland but in the land of hijrah (migration). To more closely follow the example of the Prophet in this respect, Muslims in Pennsylvania have established new Muslim cemeteries to accommodate the prospect of permanent residence in hijrah. This allows for Muslim migrants to worry less about missing the blessings that come from being buried in a Muslim-majority contexts, since they reconceptualize burial in ghurba as generating the blessings associated with following the life and deeds of the Prophet, a requirement of all Muslims. The ultimate goal of this paper is to examine how cemetery establishment as place-making is an essential way in which Muslim migrants, including forced migrants, create a more certain future for themselves in this world and in the afterlife.