ABSTRACT
This contribution focuses on the discourses of Islam and gender violence in Germany, and their impact on contemporary refugee discussions. In particular, framed by Judith Butler’s notion of cohabitation, I analyze how the way Islam is depicted impacts how and whether refugees are understood as part of the time and place in which they live. I begin my analysis with an analysis of news coverage of two 2016 events, which reveal much about the gendered and racialized aspects of writing about Islam and about refugees: the January sexualized violence at the Cologne train station, and the December reactions to the alleged rape and murder of Maria L. by an unaccompanied minor refugee in Freiburg. These two events will allow me to discuss broader questions about the role of Islamophobia in academic and journalistic writing, as well as some necessary considerations for representations of refugees that enable us to consider them as full participants in the communities in which they now live.
