Understanding and Approaching Muslim Visibilities: Lessons Learned from a Fieldwork-based Study of Muslims in Copenhagen

Abstract

Within Western nation-states such as Denmark, Islamic identities are often seen as inherently and divergently visible, an aspect that some argue is detrimental to the secular nation-state. From a research perspective, one way to nuance this position is by focusing on groups of ‘invisible’ Muslims. Another path, which I pursue here, is to situate the activism of Muslims in the historical fabric of the neighbourhood(s) in which they live, in this case the Copenhagen neighbourhood of Nørrebro. Given that Muslims and others use Nørrebro as they do, this neighbourhood has become a prominent example of the effects of multiculturalism in larger national debates, a situation affecting research engagement with the community. In the last part of my article I describe my dialogical approaches for engaging with the community, thus situating the article within wider discussions of research self-reflexivity and critical ethnography (Clifford and Marcus 1986; Madison 2005).