Observing the Sunni-Shiʿa Divide in Fieldwork: The When and Where of Muslim Identities

Jesper Petersen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Based on an ethnographic study of non-conformist mosques, this article demonstrates how Muslims may adopt a Sunni or Shiʿa identity while navigating spaces that are institutionalised as such but give much less importance to this identity – if any – when occupying less structured spaces. It may, for example, have little influence on what religious literature they read, which preachers they follow on social media, and how they practise religion in everyday life. The article argues that research methodologies must be properly sensitised to this. Otherwise, they risk making the Sunni–Shiʿa identity hypervisible, thus producing the divide rather than investigating it.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)58-76
JournalJournal of Muslims in Europe
Volume12
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Religious Studies

Free keywords

  • Shiʿa
  • Shiʿism
  • Anthropology of Islam
  • Salafism
  • Islamic feminism
  • warping

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