ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the issues of intimacy and friendship within the circle of halal, based on empirical research that the author have done in France and Italy between 2005 and 2012 at different Muslim organizations such as Young Muslims of Italy (GMI), Muslims of the Parti des Indignes de la Rpublique in France and the Global Movement of Non-Violent Resistance. The questions on love and friendship are part of a discussion on the practices of Muslim actors, which came up in the qualitative interviews conducted. Young campaigners for European organizations face internal micro-controversies that modify their role within the group, as well as when they imagine and project their role outside of it, perceiving themselves in a broader public space as individuals, independent from their communities. Muslim male-female friendships begin in organizations and movements among colleagues who know how to distinguish between friendship and flirting, that ambiguous territory between unspoken feelings and seduction.
