An Islamic Wedding in a Dutch Living Room

Abstract

A few weeks ago, I attended a religious wedding in the Netherlands. A Moroccan imam concluded a marriage between a Muslim man and a non-Muslim Dutch woman - a widow with two grown-up sons. Ten people attended the ceremony: the intending couple, the imam and two members of a local mosque, the woman's two sons, and three female friends. The event epitomized in many ways what it means to live in a migrational situation where many religious facilities that can be taken for granted in Muslim majority countries must be reconstructed.