Abstract
Current media and political discourses on the European migrant crisis are predominantly framed within a discourse of a so-called ‘Islamization of Europe,’ supposedly threatening ‘Western values.’ This paper offers a different perspective on Islam and migration by focusing on a recent phenomenon: the emigration of ‘white’ European Muslim converts to a Muslim majority country. I specifically focus on the experiences and positions of Muslim converts from Belgium and the Netherlands, who perform hijra (the religious migration to a Muslim country) to Morocco. In their longing for religious freedom, and the building of a stable Islamic home far away of West-European islamophobia, many of these muhijarat, once settled in Morocco, experience isolation and feelings of disappointment regarding the perceived lack of ‘true Islam’ in their new fatherland. Based on the results of ongoing longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork among seventeen muhijarat in Morocco, I explore how their emigration to a Muslim majority country affects their religiosity, by concentrating on ‘home-making practices.’ I explore how they negotiate the complex intersections of their religious, cultural, and national identities through food, domestic decoration, and parenting. I argue that these practices should not only be understood as strategies these women employ to try and feel at home in their new environment (Boccagni 2017; Duyvendak 2011), but also as a space where they (re)arrange conflicting feelings of belonging in reference to Islam, to Moroccan society, as well as to their Dutch and Belgian backgrounds. Their general critique of Moroccan cultural and religious practices, while idealizing Belgian and Dutch manners, is often expressed in Islamic terms. This raises reflections on how their home-making practices may exemplify the formation of a new type of religious imperialism (Stoler 2002, Strathern 2016). Their narratives and practices of running a household in Morocco also highlight the ‘multiscalar’ complexities (Çaglar & Glick Schiller 2018) of transnational connections at work. The analysis of these domestic practices will be situated within recent debates about Islam and citizenship. The governments of all three countries have made explicit calls for a fight against ‘radical Islam’ and the installation of a ‘moderate Islam’ (Kundnani 2014, Mamdani 2002, Wainscott 2017). This evokes the question whether the predominantly Salafi-oriented converts fleeing an increasingly hostile social and political climate towards orthodox interpretations of Islam, are actually able to construct an alternative religious space in Morocco, where they find themselves in similar government programs.
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