Islamophobia in European Cities: Solidarities, Responses and Dilemmas for Young Balkan Muslims

The demise of socialism in Southeast Europe coincided with the breakout of wars and genocidal violence against local Muslim populations. After being displaced and forced to migrate to different European countries, former socialist citizens quickly developed institutions of sociability and unobtrusively enacted postulates of solidarity. This presentation brings a spotlight on the “generations after” – namely, young Muslims born to Balkan families whose repatriation could not take place due to the continuous political instability and insecurity in their homelands. It investigates the new modes of these “second generations” to respond to the current crisis of liberal democracy and rampant Islamophobia in particular. Overall, the scope of this presentation is twofold. First, it brings a spotlight on a wealth of untapped postulates of solidarity enacted in support of war refugees in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the Israeli onslaught on Gaza. Unconventional and non-institutional forms of solidarity are discussed to show how Muslimness of the groups under study is restrained/activated in a time of (perceived) global injustice. Hence, it is here argued that modes of negotiating two (or more) identities of “being Muslim” stem from constantly evolving urban dynamics. Second, the presentation draws on Antonio Gramsci’s paradox of the Italian “cities of silence” to advance the paradigm of “city/zens of silence”. The latter explains why political demands and cultural claims of young Muslims of Balkan origin remain subaltern to the much larger and better-established Muslim diaspora in “the West”. It is also employed to delve into a new geography of religious space(s) in which the most significant manifestations of gentrification go hand in hand with subtle manifestation of Islamophobia. This under-researched nexus is placed at the forefront to unveil a series of inconspicuous yet present dynamics in the Muslim-majority neighbourhoods of Antwerp, Bremen, Piacenza and Warsaw.