Epistemologies of the ‘Muslim Question’ in Europe. On the Politics of Knowledge Production in a Minefield

Amir-Schirin Moazami critically reflects of the politics of knowledge production undergirding hegemonic epistemologies on the “Muslim Question” in Europe. Starting from the assumption about an intrinsic relationship between knowledge and power, Moazami investigates the conditions and functions of the current incitement to discourse on Muslims and Islam in Europe and looks at the intertwinements in which the figure of the Muslim is produced as an object of academic analysis and of political intervention. Also Moazami discusses specific formats, methodologies and academic practices which have become hegemonic in this field, and asks how current politics of knowledge production on Muslims and Islam in Europe are predicated on historically constituted epistemologies and disciplinary divisions. He argues that the prevalence and persistence of certain paradigms, methodologies and categories need to be historicized in their imperial legacies and as incidents of minority-majority (re)productions within secular nation-state frameworks.

Schirin Amir-Moazami holds a PhD from the department of Social and Political Sciences of the European University Institute in Florence. Since 2009 she has worked as a professor of Islam in Europe in the department of Islamic Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focuses on bodily components of secularism in relation to minoritised religions, on questions of knowledge production on Muslims in Europe and on politics of recognition. She has published books and articles on these issues. Her edited volume on the politics of knowledge production is currently in press and will appear in German under the title “The inspected Muslim. On the Politicisation of Knowledge on Islam in Europe”.

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