Continuity and Change : religious diversity among indigenous and immigrant Muslims in Greece Venetia Evergeti & Panos Hatziprokopiou 16 th International Metropolis Conference, Migration Futures: Perspectives on Global Changes September 2011 Azores Islands, Ponta Delgada

‘Islam in Greece’ AHRC Research Program AHRC funded study exploring:  Negotiations of religious identities and practices  Politics of recognition of religious rights  The role of religion as an identification marker  Focus on Pakistani migrants and indigenous Muslims in Athens  Qualitative methodology including interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in Athens 50 open ended interviews 4 group discussions Non-participant observations in informal mosques, public prayers, neighbourhoods etc.

Continuity and Change in relation to the perception of Islam Greece Official portrayals of Greek national identity and its connection to the official religion (Christian Orthodox)  The connection between citizenship, national identity and Orthodox religion Established perceptions of Islam linked to the Ottoman/Turkish ‘tradition’ Exclusion of internal and external ‘others’:  indigenous Muslim minority in Northern Greece  Newly arriving (and older) Muslim migrants Public discourse changing? Focus shifting:  From the minority to the migrants  From Turkey to global geopolitics

Indigenous and Immigrant Muslims Indigenous: Established by Treaty of Lausanne (1923) and located in Thrace (N. Greece)– approximately 120,000 Recognised as a ‘Muslim minority’  But including three ethnic groups: Turks, Pomaks and Roma Greek citizens with constitutional and religious rights (Sharia)  but subjected to discrimination & exclusion Internal migration to Athens in 70s and 80s due to state initiatives and lack of jobs in Thrace  Loss of access to Muslim institutions once in Athens Migrants: Recent but accelerating migration from Middle East, South Asia, Africa. Diversity of experiences:  years in Greece, legal status, social conditions Organisation:  National/ethnic origins vs. religion Mainly concentrated in Athens  but dispersed across the city From private to public presence in recent years

Thracian Muslims and Pakistanis in Athens Thracians Internal migration of poorer strata due to:  State initiatives but also  Further migration through family and kin networks Community Organisations:  Differences between the elite and the rest of the community  A politicised issue: ‘ethnicisation’ of the minority  resisting the ‘Muslim’ categorisation Negotiating multiple identities within and outside the minority community:  Seen as ‘Gypsy’, Muslims, Pomaks, Turks  The importance of localised identities  Religious organisation through informal prayer sites  Becoming invisible in Athens Pakistanis The largest (Muslim) migrant group  Predominantly male workers  Precarious legal status  Not-settled in Greece Community organisations  Differences between the organised elite and the rest of the community  Differences in relation to modes of mobilisation  Relations with the Greek State Negotiating multiple identities and the role of religion  Religious identities and everyday practices  Varying religious practices and rituals  Invisibility of informal prayer sites and visibility in public spaces

Visible and invisible Religious Pluralism History / present: historical monuments vs current informal prayer sites The mosque and cemetery debate Differences between the everyday reality and the institutional/official provisions Important issue for both (practicing) Muslim Thracians and immigrants

Thracian Muslims and the Mosque debate “Leaving here in Athens I would like to have a proper mosque to visit. …I still haven’t understood what the problem is and why Greek governments don’t want to make this mosque since there are official mosques in all European capitals. It would be good for the Muslims here…Now we have to use basements of buildings to pray.” (Thracian in Athens) “Here we have created a meeting place where we meet our own people (meaning people from Thrace and specifically the same village) and we wouldn’t want to loose that.” (Thracian in Athens)

Pakistanis (and other migrants) and the Mosque debate “What I see is that this is in the Constitution, every religion should have one… [But] Until this is built, it is only words to me, because there have been at least 10 years… that they say there will be a mosque built here in Athens… But we have not seen anything… I believe in a few years there will be a Mosque…I believe that we need at least one very big mosque, so as to show the world: here is Greek democracy, here is respect, we are civilized…” (Pakistani migrant) “Here Muslims are fragmented by ethnicity, by language, everyone has his own mosque…(Pakistani migrant)

Religious pluralism and the issue of citizenship  New citizenship law (2010) ‘…no bishop assumes a public stance against the law, [but] in private talk they do not deny fears about the strengthening of the Islamic element… They estimate that the overwhelming majority of migrants living in our country come from Muslim countries… these people were born and have been brought up in fanatically Muslim societies, where sharia rules… they, as Greek Muslim citizens now, will then demand the building of mosques at least in the country’s large cities, the construction of cemeteries, etc… Orthodox Greek children will start getting familiar with Bairam and Ramadan…(to Vima, 31/01/2010) “I was born here, went to school here, got married here, had my own baby here… for me Greece is my country but my country sees me as a stranger… I’ve been born here and every year I have to go and queue together with the Pakistanis, Albanians, Romanians that have just come into the country in order to get my residence permit…” (2 nd generation Egyptian)

Concluding remarks Religious pluralism:  Continuity and change in terms of historical and current developments  Multiple layers  in relation to the changing status of the indigenous minority and in relation to socio-political developments re: new Muslim migrants Visibility vs. invisibility  Various degrees depending on ethnic groups within the minority and within the migrants Religion remains important but other everyday difficulties connected to the migratory experience take priority. Perception vs. experiences of Muslims in Greece  Perception  to homogenise them in the context of the national identity discourse, i.e ‘Turkish Islam’ Whereas religious (Muslim) organisations tend to homogenise them in the context of ‘Global Islam’  Experiences  marginalised on the whole but different according to different ethnicities, social circumstances, practices.