Religiosities in a globalized market: Migrant-origin Muslim Europeans' self-positioning beyond sending and receiving countries’ politics of religion
P11-1
Presented by: Metin Koca
States that export their official religions compete with transnational alternatives in an unprecedentedly globalized market. In the European section of this market, migrant-origin Muslim communities are approached by their countries of origin, not only as relatives and networks but also as a means of influencing European politics. On the other hand, less hierarchical and more decentralized religiosities arise from European Muslims’ changing needs for meaning and the various tools they use to communicate with fellow believers elsewhere. Both options have been taken as threats in Europe for different reasons: the former as a risk of religious-nationalist foreign infiltration (e.g., “the Gray Wolf radicalization”), and the latter as Pandora’s box, which even includes violent extremisms (e.g., “the ISIS radicalization”). This dichotomy, however, is far from capturing the tension as individuals feel and cope with it. Focusing on a selection of 160 interviews with young adults of Turkish and Moroccan origin, I will argue that the globalization mechanics (i.e., circulation, creolization, deterritorialization, de-nationalization) render migrant-origin societies a challenge against the monopoly of both the countries of residence and origin. Even though most of them frequent a mosque financed by the country of origin and support the community to have a collective voice, this participation does not necessarily take the form of submission to an unquestionable higher authority. Hence, it includes disagreements and alternative knowledge claims over subject matters such as gender and intergenerational relations, religious self-expression and identifications, the operationalization of beliefs, and their combination with traditions in the country of origin.