Afterword: Muslim ethical self-making and secular governmentality in Europe

ABSTRACT Prompted by the contributions to this collection, this afterword reflects on questions about how Europe is imagined and inhabited. Talal Asad once claimed that ‘Muslims are present in Europe and yet absent from it’. He suggests that this paradox arises from the ways in which Europe is imagined such that Muslims are excluded in profound manner from its history and development. Not recognising their historical and long-running presence in Europe, albeit in varying numbers over time, means that they are not seen as an integral part of it, only as an additive extra. The contributions collected here explore the implications of this erasure of Muslims as Europeans from the European public imagination, while also shedding light on the ways in which continued Muslim presence and commitment to ethical self-making contests and engages with modes of governance suspicious of Muslims.