The Political Geographies of Muslim Visibility: Boundaries of Tolerance in the European City

Abstract

Over the past decade, the question of what has somewhat problematically been termed “the Islamization of space” in European cities has come to the fore of political discussion. Much of the debate has focused on public reactions to and punitive state regulations of Islamic spaces of worship. Examples include the Swiss referendum in 2009 on a ban on minarets, voted in by an almost 60 per cent “yes” majority, and a similar ban proposed in Germany in 2016 by the Alternative für Deutschland. Yet opposition to the construction of mosques across Europe is just the most evident crystallization of wider fears surrounding Muslim presence and visibility in the urban landscape, with a variety of studies noting the emergence of racialized “affective geographies” in response to what are perceived to be “Muslim spaces” and “Muslim bodies,” increasingly demarcating city spaces as safe or unsafe, “ours” or “alien.”