“Muslimness” and multiplicity in qualitative research and in government reports in Canada

Abstract

With reference to a qualitative study on everyday religiosity among Muslims in St. John's, Canada, this paper examines trends in academic sources and public policy on Islam that over-privilege the most committed practitioners, thereby narrowly depicting “Muslimness.” I situate this overemphasis by reflecting on what Mamdani calls “culture talk,” an essentializing discourse heightened in the post-9/11 west (c.f. Shryock on “Islamophilia”). Interview data, along with a trend in social scientific research on Muslims that emphasize the most pious and the outcomes following the Ontario “Boyd Report” and the Quebecois “Bouchard–Taylor Report” show the pervasiveness of culture talk that erases Muslim multiplicity.

Migrants and Religion: Paths, Issues, and Lenses

“…Moreover, it has been underlined that research regarding young Muslims has concentrated almost exclusively on the most visible and conspicuously devout -frequently neo-orthodox-ones (Selby, 2016;Jeldtoft, 2013;Brubaker, 2013;Woodhead, 2013;Jeldtoft, 2011;Jeldtoft, Nielsen, 2011). Whilst this has been motivated by the need to "make sense" of the "sudden" -and visible-re-Islamization of young western-born Muslims (Roy, 2004;Kepel, 2012), who were showing to be increasingly interested in a revivalist neo-orthodox Islam (Kibria, 2008), this actually translated to a heightened focus solely on them.…”

“…removed from the sites of production of "visible Muslimness"-with the aim of exploring how these "non-obvious" Muslims make sense of religion in their daily lives and what meanings they attach to the practice of religion in their own right, "far" from possibly taken-for-granted (self-)representations of Islam. In response, these same researchers have pleaded for studying Muslims outside of visible or obvious Muslim visibilities (Selby, 2016;Jeldtoft, 2013;Brubaker, 2013;Woodhead, 2013;Jeldtoft, 2011;Jeldtoft, Nielsen, 2011). Lastly, a final example of how contextual factors influenced research is represented by the broader spectrum of studies that analyze the Islamic presence in the West from the point of view of security issues.…”

From Acceptance to Contribution: The Role of ICNA in the Integration of Transnational Immigrants in Canada

“…Muslims are supposed to live their lives according to the principles of Shari'a (Islamic law). It has been notified that the Islamic law refers to the responsibilities and rights of individuals represented as an intricate ethical-legal system [18], [19]. More importantly, these are the norms developed according to Quranic examples and values that are necessary to be followed by Muslims all across the world [18].…”

The inclusion of nonreligion in religion and human rights

“…The social context in which the nonreligious are regulated and in which they make human rights claims is important. An undercurrent of fear of an 'other' pervades public conversations about religious symbols, a fact known all too well by Muslim women who are the primary targets of various legal initiatives to control religious symbols in public spaces (Amiraux, 2016;Selby, 2016). This same current of fear has infiltrated public conversation about nonreligious challenges to religious symbols: speaking out more than a year after the Supreme Court's decision, Mayor Tremblay said: 'I am convinced that if it were a Muslim who was in Saguenay, the Supreme Court would never dare to defy the Muslims like this.…”