Young Muslims' Everyday Tactics and Strategies: Resisting Islamophobia, Negotiating Italianness, Becoming Citizens

Abstract

This paper focuses on young Muslims who are the first Italian-born descendants of migrants. It aims to explore how they cope with their sense of belonging in a post-9/11 setting characterised by two dominant frames, one based on security issues (Muslims are suspected of being dangerous terrorists) and the other on the New Orientalism (Muslims are seen as the alien ‘Other’ by Europe and the Western world). It is argued that these young Muslims resist and challenge such frames in at least four ways, namely: visibility tactics, individual promotion tactics, local/national inclusion strategies, and new-global movement strategies. Despite the dominant representation of Italy as a homogeneous country in terms of its culture and Catholic religion, there are young people who contest such an exclusionary, ethnic idea of Italianness. In short, this paper is about cultural creativity and citizenship in the everyday life of a new generation of Muslim Italians.