ABSTRACT
The tendency to see religion as the main element that could prevent Muslims from integrating within the ‘modern’, ‘civilized’ and ‘secular’ western democracies increased at the end of 1980s. If during the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s anthropologists working on Muslims in the west had focused on Muslim migrants, at the end of the 1980s their interest was redirected towards the new generations. September 11 has certainly changed the world and the lives of millions. It has transformed the world into a less secure place than before, raised the tensions between different worldviews, challenged our intellectual and religious beliefs and shaken rights which we had taken for granted in the western part of the world after the end of the Second World War. After September 11, anthropologists working on Islam have felt pressure to advance a counter-hegemonic discourse against certain simplifications that affected not only the political but also the academic discourse, in particular in the USA.
