The Ethics and Pragmatics of Ethnographic Refusal/Acceptance Making Sense in Common

I want to reflect on the methodological and ethical paradoxes that inform the current anthropological field of Islam in Europe, which largely revolve around a growing refusal to be subjected to the ethnographic gaze of researchers. This refusal expresses itself in many ways among the Muslim community workers in Belgium, where I live and conduct most of my research.1 Being Muslim and being engaged in some form of community activism work implies, unavoidably, having been approached by a journalist, a researcher, or a student who wants to sit down with you and have a chat or a discussion for an article, book, or thesis. Whether is it in individual conversations, public gatherings and meetings, or exchanges among friends, the figure of the “researcher” who demands an interview is often invoked and has even become the object of despair, critique, or humor. However, this research fatigue takes on more serious proportions when these repeated solicitations occur in a climate of suspicion and criminalization, as is the reality today for many Muslims in Europe, and may also contribute to their further stigmatization. Too often, the fear exists that the information shared will be used to feed into theories and stories that participate in the stigmatization and criminalization of the communities.2 As someone who has been involved for a long time in antiracist and feminist organizations in Belgium and as a Muslim, I have been on the receiving end of repeated solicitations and calls by researchers, journalists, and students. Increasingly, I have been reluctant to answer those calls due to the flawed framing or simply for lack of time. However, as an anthropologist studying Islamic civil society in Francophone Europe, I have also been on the requesting side of these very same solicitations, reaching out to people who I knew were tired of these repeated solicitations by researchers. This paper is an attempt to work through these contradictions and use ethnographic refusal, “silence,” and fatigue as a site to examine how representational agency is negotiated in a context of surveillance and overresearch. © 2024 by Duke University Press.