Culture is a constant reference in debates surrounding Islam in Europe. Yet the notion of culture is commonly restricted to conceptual frames of multiculturalism where it relates to group identities, ...collective ways of life and recognition. This volume extends such analysis of culture by approaching it as semiotic practice which conjoins the making of subjects with the configuration of the social.Examining fields such as memory, literature, film, and Islamic art, the studies in this volume explore culture as another element in the assemblage of rationalities governing European Islam.From this perspective, the transformations of European identities can be understood as a matter of cultural practice and politics, which extend the analytical frames of political philosophy, historical legacies, normative orders and social dynamics.
Se examina en este ensayo la evolución reciente de las asociaciones musulmanas en España creadas por inmigrantes marroquíes vinculados al movimiento islámico al-‘Adl wa-l-Ihsan (Justicia y ...Espiritualidad). Partiendo de las declaraciones de un liderazgo emergente de este movimiento en España, la autora trata de explicar cómo el compromiso político de estas personas y el vínculo espiritual con su Guía marroquí incorporan, al tiempo que reelaboran, elementos del discurso dominante sobre la necesaria adaptación del islam a España. Entrevistas en profundidad con estos activistas revelan cómo los lazos del Movimiento con Marruecos y con la umma (Comunidad universal de creyentes) interactúan con el modo en el que estos musulmanes perciben y se posicionan en el contexto nacional de España.
This article explores the resonances of the Morisco past in present-day Spain and the connection between the commemoration of the 1609 expulsion and Spanish-Moroccan relations today. It looks at the ...different forms of remembering the 400 years since the Decree of Expulsion was issued, its critics, and how these public memory projects intersect with colonial narratives, before investigating how the conflicting pasts converge and are reinterpreted in current discussions about the place of Islam in Europe. By examining the claims about history and memory made by different actors reacting to the commemoration of Spain's expulsion of the Moriscos, the article shows how the Muslim subject is acknowledged as part of the country's historical past, yet is hardly accepted as part of Spanish society today.
The conclusion of the Agreement has to be seen primarily in the context of Spain's democratization process and in relation to various historical events commemorated in 1992, namely, the anniversary ...of the "discovery" of America and of the decree of the expulsion of the Muslims and Jews signed by the Catholic kings. With the Agreements concluded in 1992 concerning religious minorities, Jews, Evangelicals and Muslims, the government was re-reading and re-writing the legacy of a unique national identity made up by historiography, a historiography which had been promoted by the State since the 19th century and was based on an essentialist reading of history deeply influenced by the Catholic Church, linking religious identity with national identity.3 Nevertheless, this Catholic influence remains as an outstanding point in the Constitution of 1978, as it states that No religion shall have a state character.
Put differently, instead of carrying on the problematic assumption that the authorization of Islam depends importantly on religious authorities, the research focus should be broadened on processes of ...authorization which might imply a variety of factors and lead to very diverging outcomes in terms of authorities and religious institutions of authority. The issues discussed in this volume range from: the historical configuration of religious authority in Europe, the emergence of a secular Muslim subjectivity in relation to laïcité and the history of colonialism, current state policies in Spain, England and France to promote specific Muslim institutions, the conflicting processes of authorization in Islam between believers and would-be-authorizers in Denmark, Germany and France, as well conceptualizations of authority by Muslim legal scholars, in both the past and the present.
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