Being Muslim “without a fuss”: relaxed religiosity and conditional inclusion in Danish schools and society

Abstract

The ethnic boundary between majority Danes and Muslim minorities has become increasingly impermeable in recent decades, restricting Muslim minorities to conditional inclusion, adapting to the majority's conditions of good citizenship. This article looks at the 'conditions of inclusion' for Muslim pupils in multi-ethnic schools, focusing on what pupils express as an ideal of being a 'relaxed Muslim'. This condition of 'relaxed' religiosity reflects the dominant discourse on integration in Denmark with its anxiety about Islamism and demand that Muslims adjust to the moderate secularism that typifies Danish society. Yet it is argued, that it also points to a more general condition of being a good minority citizen in the Danish welfare society and its institutions, as well as in other similar societies, linked to ensuring the smooth running of everyday practices, ideas about civilised interaction, and maintaining the cultural dominance of the majority, and thus to a majority-defined harmony.-Integration, religion in schools, ethnic boundaries, Muslim pupils, multi-ethnic schools.

Dilemmas of belonging: Young Muslim women in the Danish youth alcohol culture

“…Furthermore, belonging in these last quotes, becomes less problematised, at least from the perspective of the women, but possibly also from the perspective of ethnic Danish youth. For instance, in this line of reasoning, Gilliam (2022) argues that when Muslim pupils in the Danish primary school are perceived as ‘relaxed’ and being religious ‘without a fuss’, they are more easily accepted. This conditional inclusion is based on almost equating ‘relaxed religiosity’ to being a ‘moderate Muslim’, who practices religion in the same way as the majority of Danes and does not hinder the majority-defined harmony ( Gilliam, 2022 ).…”

“…The public discourse on Islam and Muslims has changed in recent decades, and today Islam and being Muslim have, in many ways, become the opposite of being Danish. Rather than being two compatible aspects of identity, they seem to either clash or be placed within a hierarchy where Muslims need to ‘be relaxed’ or ‘not make a fuss’ in order to be accepted as part of society ( Gilliam, 2022 ).…”

“…Since the first groups of Muslim immigrants, the so called ‘guest workers’, from primarily Turkey, Pakistan and the former Yugoslavia, arrived in Denmark in the 1960s, the discourse on Islam has shifted: from being a (neutral) aspect of immigrants’ culture to being a (cultural) barrier to the immigrants’ integration into Danish society. Immigrants were generally not defined in terms of their religion, but as ‘foreign workers’ who were temporarily in the country because of a labour shortage ( Gilliam, 2022 ). Over time, however, many settled in Denmark with their families rather than return to their countries of origin.…”

‘This Society Has Taken Me.’ Intensive Parenting and Fragile Belonging among Second-Generation Minority Danish Parents

“…As I will return to, this does not mean that they agree with everything that takes place in children's institutions and schools, but rather that they assume a position as the 'established' trying to integrate the 'outsiders.' Yet, as Saida and others show, in contrast to the established majority, these parents know that their belonging is fragile, their inclusion conditional, and that they can always be mis-interpellated and excluded (Gilliam 2022). They are very aware that the majority may disregard their indigenousness and categorise them alongside first-generation parents according to racialised body signs, and thus as one of the outsiders.…”

Dilemmaer og bæredygtighed i demokratiske deltagelsesprocesser – når marginaliserede unges viden og erfaring står i centrum

“…Der arbejdedes med en metode udviklet specifikt til ungeområdet kaldet temavaerksteder (Bladt, 2013). Temavaerksteder er inspireret af fremtidsvaerkstedet (Jungk & Müllert, 1984) (Gilliam, 2022).…”