The Making of “Norwegian Muslims”: From Immigrants to Citizens?

By Christine M. Jacobsen
English

The durable settlement of Muslim immigrants and their descendants has made Islam the second largest religion in Norway. This article deals with young women and men affiliated to Muslim youth and student organizations in Oslo, and the ways in which they publicly engage in redefining what it means to be a Muslim in Norway. Focusing on the production of the category “Norwegian Muslim”, and the ways in which young Muslims embrace, resist and negotiate national and religious identities, the author argues that what it means to be a Norwegian Muslim to activist young Muslims is shaped both by the discourses and practices of the nation-state and by the discourses and practices of transnational Islam. The ways in which young Muslims are shaped and shape themselves as citizen-subjects is shown to be neither a passive adaptation to dominant norms, nor a refusal of these, but a complex process of negotiation that foregrounds “participation” rather than “integration”.

Keywords

  • migration
  • Muslims
  • youth
  • citizen-subjects
  • Norway
Go to the article on Cairn-int.info