Public Lecture

A gradual emergence of diasporic communities out of migrant groups with an Islamic background (Schiffauer 2007) also implies a transition of their status from the "invisible migrant-worker" to that of "visible Muslim citizenship" (Göle 2011). Geared with a strengthening of the populist right in Switzerland, the increasing visibility of Islam has given rise to conflicting claims to the appropriation of urban spaces – a tug of war that culminated in 2009 in a minaret ban, on the one hand, and the emergence of the radical organisation Islamic Central Council Switzerland (ICCS) on the other. Drawing on Lefebvre's (1991) concept of "representational space" the study argues that public visibility has become the main contested issue between the populist right and the ICCS. Whereas the former strives for containing "the Islamic threat" by pushing Islam out of the public spaces, the latter uses urban spaces to maximise the public visibility of Islam in Switzerland. 

RSVPSSAP-Research@uws.edu.au by Monday 11.

Amir Sheikhzadegan is a senior post-doc lecturer and researcher at the Department of Social Sciences (Section of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work) of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). He is the author of "Der Griff des politischen Islam zur Macht: Iran und Algerien im Vergleich" (2003) as well as the co-editor of "Gesellschaften zwischen Multi- und Transkulturalität" (forthcoming).