Strangers across the ages

The Muslim other in Europe

Abstract

Muslim migrants and post-migrants in today’s Europe continue to be relegated to various categories of otherness. Labelled as refugees or people with migration backgrounds, as somehow external and juxtaposed to European identities and geographies, they are met with discomfort and prejudice. By revisiting key periods in European history like the Reconquista in al-Andalus, a Freigeist project at the Max Weber Institute of Sociology of Heidelberg University seeks to understand how and why such an exclusionary rhetoric in Europe has come to focus specifically on Muslims. By shining a light on both Muslim and Jewish contributions to the making of European societies and histories, its aim is to move both from the margins to the centre of the European story.