Public Renderings of Islam and the Jihadi Threat: Political, Social, and Religious Critique in Civil Society in Flanders, Belgium

Contemporary political-public concerns with connections between Islam and terrorist violence in West-European societies contribute to ‘the Muslim question’, that is, the construction of Muslims, Islam and Muslimness as essentially ‘different’ from Western culture and society. This chapter focuses on 2014–2015 instances of Flemish public renderings of the ‘jihadi threat’ and explores counter-voices emerging from small initiatives in civil society. The counter-voices are assessed for the ways in which they respond to ‘the Muslim question’ and as such create space for the construction of various forms of agency, religious/secular subjectivity, morality, and citizenship, for Muslims as well as non-Muslims. Moreover, the counter-voices are considered as local actors of religious critique/theory of religion.