Faithful Journeys: Unpacking the Religious Luggage of Senegalese Murid Migrants in Europe

Abstract

This contribution aims to approach the theme of a traveling Islam by starting from moving people and considering how their religious “luggage”—in terms of beliefs, ideas, and practices—travels with them and what this means for the circulation of religious ideas in Africa and beyond. The paper focuses particularly on Senegalese migrants of the Murid Sufi order residing in Italy and the Netherlands; it investigates how their religious luggage is important to them in the migration context and may circulate further from there. In addition, it explores how their religious luggage is moulded in, and through, their migration experiences: for instance, its meaning may change, or another layer may be added. Finally, ideas on (the force of) the Muridiyya may travel back to Senegal, adding other layers to the meaning of religion there as well.