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1 results

  • 2 - Muslim Undertakers and the Bureaucracy of Death

  • Osman Balkan, University of Pennsylvania
  • Book:
    Dying Abroad
    Published online:
    30 March 2023
    Print publication:
    06 April 2023, pp 84-129

  • Summary

    Based on immersive and extensive participant observation across six Islamic funeral homes in Berlin, this chapter focuses on the mediating role that Muslim undertakers play between immigrant families and the German state. As intermediaries, undertakers guide minority families through the cultural, religious, political, and legal landscapes structuring the transitions from life to death. In reconciling competing sets of administrative and cultural norms, they preside not only over end-of-life decisions and their theological implications, but also over pedagogical moments of sociocultural integration in contemporary Germany. Undertakers teach lessons about the state to minoritized citizens but also offer lessons to the state about its own citizenry, often by countering negative stereotypes about Islam and Muslims in Germany.