The Mute Symbols of Islam

The public visibility of religious and cultural signs of Islam expresses the presence of Muslim actors in European countries. The minarets--as, in other respects the veils, the other mute symbol--reveal the Muslim actor--as pious, as feminine--in public life. Islam, in a paradoxical way, has become a political and cultural resource for the singularization of immigrants, for their quest for recognition, and so it indicates in turn their particular citizenship in the public space of Europe. This n