Ethnic Dimensions in the Discourse and Identity Strategies of European Converts to Islam in Andalusia and Flanders

Abstract

This paper provides a comparative analysis of the ethnic dimensions in discourse and identity strategies of European converts to Islam. To highlight the very different conditions which European neo-Muslims face when adopting an ethnicising discourse and/or strategies, two divergent settings for study are selected. We present data on Andalusia (Spain) where, in the aftermath of Francoism, Spanish neo-Muslims revitalised Andalusian ideas about the rootedness of Andalusia in Dar al Islam. This case is compared with Flanders (Belgium). Do we find similar ethnicising strategies and discourses among these two categories of European neo-Muslims? What are the limits of and possibilities for ethnicising conversion in each setting? And what are the implications with regard to the legitimating of the claimed mediatorship of converts between Islamic and European societies, on both an individual and a collective level? We are unable to conclude that the dynamics at the micro level are different in each setting, but are able to show that there are clear strategic differences at the macro and median levels.

Keywords:

• Conversion
• Neo-Muslims
• Islam
• Ethnicity
• Andalusia
• Flanders

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the FWO—the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research—for the financing of the project. We would also like to thank the anonymous JEMS referees for their interesting suggestions.

Notes

1. Webislam, Primer Congreso Mundial de Musulmanes de Habla Hispana: http://www.webislam.com/congresohispano/principal.html.

2. According to an informant at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Brussels, February 2008.

3. Verde Islam 12, http://www.webislam.com/?idt=3406, 29 January 2008.

4. World Islamic People's Leadership: http://www.intoIslam.com/Islam/Islamic/Countries/Libya/2060.html, as at 30 January 2008.

5. See http://www.webislam.com/?idn=9231.

6. See http://americaversus.iespana.es/

7. See http://www.antropologia.inah.gob.mx/pdf//pdf_diario/2008/dc_enero-feb.pdf

8. See http://www.latinodawah.org.

9. De Koepel, http://www.de-koepel.be, 14 August 2008.

10. De Koepel, http://www.de-koepel.be, 14 August 2008.