Negotiating a contested identity: Religious individualism among Muslim youth in a super-diverse city

“I’m Trying to Give Them My Face.” Everyday Embodied Agency of the Muslim Other in Amsterdam

“…For example, Soares and Osella (2009) explored seemingly nonreligious aspects of Muslims' everyday lives arguing that desire, leisure, fashion, and sports are agential through which Muslims challenge Islam vs. the West binary (Gokariksel and Secor 2010;Sehlikoglu 2018;Tarlo 2007aTarlo , 2007bTarlo , 2010. In this regard, O'Brien (2015) has conceptualized "religious individualism" to understand how young Muslims construct their definitions of agency within their religious identification to negotiate potential conflicts and tensions between their embodiments and the dominant cultural framework of whiteness (Driezen et al 2021). For example, Mossi ere (2019) highlights various ways through which Muslims combine Islamic dress codes with Western styles or Tarlo (2007a:144) looks at the Islamic cosmopolitanism through "a proliferation of religiously oriented fashions in the streets of most major cosmopolitan cities in the West.…”

“…As Gokariksel (2009) reflects, the religious and the secular are not the opposite but intersect in complex ways. Through the privatization and individualization of religion, we witness an eclective and bricolage of religious beliefs and practices (Driezen et al 2021). By interpreting modesty based on their personal read of the religious texts as well as concepts of beauty, femininity, masculinity, social class, and invested sociocultural capital, some of the observed/interviewed young Dutch Muslims demonstrate a new approach to the self, society, and religion (Gokariksel 2009;Gokariksel and Secor 2010;Mossi ere 2019;Secor 2002;Tarlo 2007aTarlo , 2007bTarlo , 2010.…”

“…In this regard, O’Brien (2015) has conceptualized “religious individualism” to understand how young Muslims construct their definitions of agency within their religious identification to negotiate potential conflicts and tensions between their embodiments and the dominant cultural framework of whiteness (Driezen et al. 2021). For example, Mossière (2019) highlights various ways through which Muslims combine Islamic dress codes with Western styles or Tarlo (2007a:144) looks at the Islamic cosmopolitanism through “a proliferation of religiously oriented fashions in the streets of most major cosmopolitan cities in the West.”…”

“…The main objective of this study is thus to understand how young Muslims socio-spatially negotiate potential tensions between their embodiments and the dominant cultural framework of whiteness (O'Brien 2015). In the context of this article, we approach agency as a set of culturally learned ways of staying away from "troubles" as well as ways of applying personal interpretations of religion and expressing choice by which Muslims respond to their subjected Othering (Driezen et al 2021;Ellefsen and Sandberg 2021;Mahmood 2005).…”

“…In the context of this article, we approach agency as a set of culturally learned ways of staying away from “troubles” as well as ways of applying personal interpretations of religion and expressing choice by which Muslims respond to their subjected Othering (Driezen et al. 2021; Ellefsen and Sandberg 2021; Mahmood 2005).…”