Queer Muslims in Europe ─ Sexuality, Religion and Migration in Belgium

Belgium was the second country in the world to introduce same-sex marriage. It has an elaborate legal system for protecting the rights of LGBT individuals in general and LGBT asylum seekers in particular. At the same time, since 2015 the country has become known as the "jihadi center of Europe" and criticized for its "homonationalism" where some queer subjects - such as ethnic, racial, and religious minorities, or those with a migrant background - are excluded from the dominant discourse on LGBT rights. Queer Muslims living in the country exist in this complex and contradictory context and their identities are often disregarded as implausible.

This book foregrounds the lived experiences of queer Muslims who migrated to Belgium because of their sexuality and queer Muslims who are the children of economic migrants. Based on extensive fieldwork, Wim Peumans examines how queer Muslims negotiate silence and disclosure around their sexuality, maintain transcultural relationships, and understand their religious beliefs. The book reveals the interrelated issues involved in migration, sexuality, and religion and challenges the existing heteronormativity of migration studies.

In focusing on people with different migration histories and ethnic backgrounds, the book provides a much-needed, more nuanced perspective that will be valuable for those working on immigration, refugees, LGBT issues, public policy, and contemporary Muslim studies.

Wim Peumans is an associated researcher in the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. In 2016, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the same center, working on the Andrew Mellon funded project, "Governing Morality: Sexuality, Gender and Asylum in South Africa." As a fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO – Vlaanderen) he obtained his Ph.D. in social and cultural anthropology at the Interculturalism, Migration and Minorities Research Centre at KU Leuven. He has also been a visiting trainee fellow at the University of Kent - Canterbury. Peumans' Master's thesis was published as a book and his work has appeared in various journals, including Sexualities, the Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies, Studi Emigrazione/Migration Studies.