MISLAM

MISLAM stems from the observation of the current times of war and instability, when unresolved issues resurface in public and political debates. Accordingly, the project addresses knotty problems by investigating – through the prism of normativity – topical and usually overlooked dynamics occurring when the daily life of MMCs’ (im)migrants unfolds on European soil. Embracing a novel perspective aimed at making the invisible visible, MISLAM unpacks the complexities embedded in the fluid framework of the post-modern g-localised multipolarity. Flipping the current narrative, the project pays attention not only to (im)migrant men and women, but also to inter/national (non-)state socio-legal actors, who are playing crucial roles in legal, administrative, and healthcare environments – both in European countries (EuCs) and Muslim-majority countries (MMCs). By placing Italy under a magnifying glass, this country becomes a privileged (yet understudied) observatory to investigate internally developed dynamics, whose ripple effect reverberates at international and transnational levels. Adopting a multi-/inter-disciplinary cross-national comparative approach, MISLAM unveils the matters arising when law is diffused, legal provisions are transplanted across different jurisdictions, and social praxes are translated into concrete actions, in diverse environments, in various countries. While deploying a typology of critical socio-legal issues specifically characterising MMCs’ (im)migrants, the project sheds light on what happens in courts and beyond. It also investigates whether – in MMCs – the (extra-)judicial documentation produced in Italy (and in other EuCs) is granted legal (non-)validation, religious (non-)recognition, and/or social (non-) acknowledgement. MISLAM intends thus to reveal how these (mostly unperceived) dynamics impact on, and eventually mould, the migratory routes of MMCs’ (im)migrants and their (long-term) settlement projects.