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The Struggle to be Seen; Muslim-Christian Relations and Religious (In)Visibility at the Hispano-Moroccan Borderland
Journal
Journal of Contemporary Religion
ISSN
1353-7903
ISSN-Digital
1469-9419
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2018
Author(s)
Abstract
Anthropologists have for long been concerned with the issue of invisibility and with the processes by which the invisible attempts to become noted. This article is an exploration of one such case. The setting here explored is the borderland that separates North-Africa from Europe, Morocco from Spain, more precisely the two autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. As the autonomous character of the cities themselves evoke, being often left outside the national imagination of what is commonly seen as ‘Spain’, the two North-African ports echo Latour’s depiction of invisibilities, which are not simply social constructions, nor are they autonomous realities beyond our reach. Rather, they are both constructed and real; they are artifacts and actors. These invisibilities, together with the vectors that operate to make them noticeable, are what Latour labels ‘regimes of invisibility’ (2010). I content in this article, that the relations between Muslims and Christians in Ceuta and Melilla work through the lenses of a regime of this type, one in which a group exerts its power by being visible and legible, whilst the other is pushed away, not without resistance, from the ‘central stage’. The regime as Latour reminds us, displays an intricate set of practices, technologies, mediators, knowledges, and translations that ascend to illuminate the invisible. This research is an attempt at scrutinising some of these dynamics as they occur where Morocco meets Spain. In the case here analysed, religion is due to historical reasons enunciated as the main vehicle to articulate both the rule and the resistance to the processes of erasure/becoming apparent. Religion is in this borderland, the language through which the regime, as well as its discontents, are expressed.
The article critically assesses the relational dynamics between Muslims and Christians in Ceuta and Melilla against the trope of ‘invisibility’ by arguing that a privileged Christian community generates mechanisms to turn invisible the disadvantaged Muslim group of the enclaves, a process that responds to a genealogy of longue durée. In particular the article looks at some of the facets in which the regime of invisibility is (ironically enough) manifested, namely: a) the historical underpinnings of the regime, b) the regime as expressed in economic terms, its spatial manifestations in c) the urban planning (or the lack of it), d) and in its religious architecture, e) the regime as expressed discursively by a mechanism of ‘racializing’ religion, and finally, f) the regime’s discontent and g)the strategies by which the invisible attempts to become visible. Overall, this is an attempt to shed light at some of the processes by which various invisibilities are hidden and reclaimed and the use being made of religion to articulate this particular relational dynamics of othering. The fact that this process occurs in itself in a borderland territory, liminal by nature, and thus with great potential for being turned illegible, adds complexity to the forces at work. Nonetheless, it is both the liminal character of Ceuta and Melilla in the national geography of both countries, Spain and Morocco, as well as the somehow unique role given to religion in enunciating the visible/invisible what turns the study of the religion/borderland dyad a particular useful lenses in understanding such ‘regime.’
The article critically assesses the relational dynamics between Muslims and Christians in Ceuta and Melilla against the trope of ‘invisibility’ by arguing that a privileged Christian community generates mechanisms to turn invisible the disadvantaged Muslim group of the enclaves, a process that responds to a genealogy of longue durée. In particular the article looks at some of the facets in which the regime of invisibility is (ironically enough) manifested, namely: a) the historical underpinnings of the regime, b) the regime as expressed in economic terms, its spatial manifestations in c) the urban planning (or the lack of it), d) and in its religious architecture, e) the regime as expressed discursively by a mechanism of ‘racializing’ religion, and finally, f) the regime’s discontent and g)the strategies by which the invisible attempts to become visible. Overall, this is an attempt to shed light at some of the processes by which various invisibilities are hidden and reclaimed and the use being made of religion to articulate this particular relational dynamics of othering. The fact that this process occurs in itself in a borderland territory, liminal by nature, and thus with great potential for being turned illegible, adds complexity to the forces at work. Nonetheless, it is both the liminal character of Ceuta and Melilla in the national geography of both countries, Spain and Morocco, as well as the somehow unique role given to religion in enunciating the visible/invisible what turns the study of the religion/borderland dyad a particular useful lenses in understanding such ‘regime.’
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Taylor Francis
Publisher place
Basingstoke
Volume
33
Number
3
Start page
527
End page
548
Pages
21
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
251845