Visibility, transparency and gossip: How did the religion of some (Muslims) become the public concern of others?

Abstract

Over the last 30 years, the publicly visible “otherness” embodied by the Muslim population in the member states of the European Union has sparked movements of transnational public discussions mainly driven by the fear of the collapse of “national cohesion.” This paper engages theoretically with the idea that these debates have become an ordinary trap for European publics, France being the main illustration in the text. It is more specifically concerned with the discussions surrounding the recent ban on the wearing of the full veil in French public space, asking: what does the omnipresence of public discussions about religious otherness reveal of the national culture of citizenship? What are the epistemological and political implications of the evaluation of daily individual experiences as criminal in secular contexts? The text develops some speculative readings of the public experience arising from the visibility of Islamic religious signs and the capital attached to their visibility.

The Nativity scene in a shared religious space: The case study of Saint-Pierre’s Church in Montreal

“…In his words, the person who complained after the Christmas Mass said that "it's not acceptable to have [in a Catholic church] the Nativity scene of another religion." At first we thought that the remark about the alternative crèche was simply an embellishment of the story, the sort that happens in the transferral of information in communities that we might describe as "gossip" (Amiraux, 2016). However, on further exploration in our interviews with the Orthodox parishioners, we realized that there was a foundation for this alternative crèche story: in 2015, a group of children performed a live Nativity play during a religious service before Christmas Eve and for a short period the stage set for the play was in Saint-Pierre's Church.…”

Dimensions of Diversity: Toward a More Complex Conceptualization

“…For example, Amiraux has noted the complex negotiations around the wearing of hijab and niqab for Muslim women. The 'imperiled Muslim woman' is supported by discourse akin to gossip (Amiraux 2016) and acts as a figure, which shapes the non-Muslim public imaginary of who Muslim women are (Selby et al 2018). The politics of gender are different for Muslim women and men-the latter being imagined in a range of ways, the Terrorist and the Enlightened Muslim Man being two of the most common (Selby et al 2018).…”

Producing ‘internal suspect bodies’: divisive effects of UK counter‐terrorism measures on Muslim communities in Leeds and Bradford

“…Amiraux (: 44) writes that in liberal democracies visibility is connected to ‘citizen participation and recognition’, and equated with being allowed a voice. Conversely, Saba shows that young Muslims’ presence is tokenistic.…”