The Muslim Trap: negotiating being and belonging in turbulent times

This special issue presents ethnographic research exploring the everyday lives of Muslims in diverse urban settings from cities across France, Norway, Spain, and the UK. It examines how pervasive anti-Muslim discourses and critical events contribute to atmospheres of fear, framing Muslims as exceptional citizens within polarized national contexts. Central to the issue is the notion of “the trap” – a surface of representation that reduces Muslim agency to reactive resistance or threat, casting (or framing) as causes and manifestations of polarization. Yet, rather than dwell on the experience of Islamophobia alone – not withstanding its importance in everyday Muslim life – the papers foreground the ordinariness of Muslim life, marked by aspirations, improvisations, and hopeful futures. Contributors show how Muslims re-evaluate civic relations, engage creatively with state institutions, and develop alternative modes of belonging. Viewing the city as both archive and active site, the research highlights how Muslim subjectivities are shaped and expressed across time and space. The issue ultimately challenges reductive framings, offering a more expansive, relational understanding of Muslim agency.