List of Illustrations

Introduction
Johanna M. Lems and Ana I. Planet Contreras

Chapter 1. Between Presence and a Non-presence: Visibility, Transparency and Practices of Opacity among Dutch Muslims in the Public Sphere
Martijn de Koning

Chapter 2. Alternative Standpoint Religion: Producing Religious Agencies in the LGBT+ Christian Association of Madrid
José Barrera Blanco

Chapter 3. Modern Charity: Citizenship, Gender and Islam in Portugal
Raquel Carvalheira

Chapter 4. Sexuality, Migration and Religion: Migrated Gay Men Living in Madrid
Rafael Camarero Montesinos

Chapter 5. ‘Life Is a Battlefield’: Spiritual Warfare as a Trans-Semiotic and Trans-Sensory Negotiation in an African Neo-Pentecostal Church in Madrid
Michele Cunico

Chapter 6. Creating Change from Within: Young Muslim Women and Agency in Transformation
Johanna M. Lems

Conclusion
Johanna M. Lems and Ana I. Planet Contreras

Index

Facing Discrimination

Religion and Agency in Contemporary European Contexts

Edited by Johanna M. Lems and Ana I. Planet Contreras

142 pages, 3 illus., bibliog., index

ISBN 978-1-83695-284-8 Hb Published (December 2025)

eISBN 978-1-83695-286-2
web ISBN 978-1-83695-286-2

Details

“This book addresses an important topic...the contributions are of high quality and provide analyses that are sophisticated and nuanced.” • Avi Astor, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

“This is a very interesting book with lots of rich material and relevant arguments. It offers an interesting perspective for the ways people respond to situations of discrimination and oppression.” • Julia Martínez Ariño, University of Groningen

Across Europe, racialised groups and other minorities are often subject to discriminatory policies and practices. Facing Discrimination offers insight into the dynamics of religious beliefs and practices among those who are discriminated against, showing how religion as a source of agency interacts with processes of marginalization. Six micro-level studies from Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands examine stigmatised groups and individuals, analysing how religious involvement in its multiple forms and interpretations, affects the capacity to respond to exclusion and shape the acceptance or rejection of imposed categories.

Johanna M. Lems is Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Oriental Studies at the Complutense University of Madrid. She is the secretary of the academic journal Anaquel de Estudios Árabes. She has published among others in Ethnic and Racial Studies and The Routledge Handbook on Islam and Race (Abdullah, 2025) and is the author of Tomar la palabra. Islamofobia y participación política después del 15-M (Vernon Press, 2024).

Ana I. Planet Contreras is Professor in Sociology of Islam in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Autonomous University of Madrid. She is the co-director of research group ‘Taller de Estudios Internacionales Mediterráneos’, director of academic journal Revista de Estudios Internacionales Mediterráneos and editor of Cuestiones de pluralismo. Since March 2019 she has been a member of the Advisory Committee to the Spanish government on matters of freedom of religion.

Series: Volume 48, New Directions in Anthropology

Subject: Anthropology of Religion Political and Economic Anthropology

Area: Europe

BISAC: SOC002010 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social; REL084000 RELIGION/Religion, Politics & State; SOC031000 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Discrimination & Race Relations

berghahn New York · Oxford

Contents

Facing Discrimination

Religion and Agency in Contemporary European Contexts

Edited by Johanna M. Lems and Ana I. Planet Contreras

Series: Volume 48, New Directions in Anthropology

Subject: Anthropology of Religion Political and Economic Anthropology

Area: Europe

Home -> Title

Contents

Facing Discrimination

Religion and Agency in Contemporary European Contexts

Edited by Johanna M. Lems and Ana I. Planet Contreras

Series: Volume 48, New Directions in Anthropology

Subject: Anthropology of Religion Political and Economic Anthropology

Area: Europe