Search

In the middle of the twentieth century, when the European Union (EU) started to take shape, numerous European colonies – many with a significant Muslim population – gained independence. These two moments in history need to be read in relation to each other when thinking about "Islam in Europe". This paper engages in such a relational reading and shifts the analytical focus from "Islam" to "Europe", exploring the ways "EUrope" manifests itself in the city of Brussels. By combining a spatialized analysis of the European Quarter with the conceptual lens of the "palimpsest", I seek to offer a spatiotemporal framing that renders visible the material remains of imperial formations within the fabric of "EUrope". The paper further explores how these often unmarked layers configure EU-space as "white" and Christian, and impact the ways Muslim bodies navigate within the EU-fabric and create counterspaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction to the Special Issue "Rethinking Islam and Space in Europe" advocates for an analytical turn in the study of Islam in Europe by using space as a central conceptual lens. While spatial approaches are gaining traction in the study of religion, migration, ethnicity, and race, we argue that the critical potential of spatial approaches remains largely unexplored. This paper offers a threefold contribution. First, we show how combining spatial perspectives with local histories contributes to de-exceptionalising the contemporary study of Islam in urban contexts. Second, by "localising secularism" we can uncover concrete formations of exclusion and erasure, while also providing a more refined picture of the ways in which the agency of Muslims is negotiated. Third, we demonstrate how scrutinizing the nexus of time, race and Europe reveals colonial pasts and continuities that are disrupted and transformed by the movement of bodies through public spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]