QUEST(Qualify Unification in Europe for Shifting Trust)A comparative research on Muslims responses to the politics of threat in France,UK,Spain&Norway

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This project addresses two themes of the call, the emerging politics of threat and shifting identitiesand representations, in relation to the presence of Muslims in European public spheres. Throughtwo phases of research, followed by an action phase involving civil society and policy actors, theproject aims to (a) consider common discourses of threat accompanying the growing presence ofMuslims in four European societies with different traditions of minority inclusion; (b) to movebeyond such ‘problem oriented’ approaches by examining the shifting identities andrepresentations of Muslims as these are emerging in an era of ‘democratic deficit’. A key aim is toidentify individual and collective discourses, practices and strategies in the re-elaboration processof what it means to ‘be Muslim’ in a polarized Europe, by focusing on responses to stigmatizationand exclusion. A final action phase (c) will seek to transfer innovative practices of engagement anddialogue across the different European contexts. The project will make use of an ethnographicapproach that involves mapping cultural production and activism through extended engagementwith Muslims in urban settings, and with a special focus on youth and gender. While acknowledgingthe discourses of threat that pervade representations of Muslims in European public spheres, theproject distinguishes itself from much of the research that represents Muslim agency in a stultifyingmanner. By focusing on new forms of engagement and dialogue in collaboration with civil societyactors, the project seeks to promote more inclusive societies in a period of growing anxiety andmistrust.