Chapter 2 depicts the current situation of Muslims in Asante. I briefly summarise the historical developments since the early 2000s and discuss the demographics of the Muslim minority in Asante. I describe zongos as wards of strangers and Muslim communities and narrate the history of one of these wards in detail, thereby introducing Kokote Zongo, the main site of my fieldwork and ethnography, and I offer a bird’s-eye view of its social structure. I conclude the chapter with two accounts of how people in this ward cope and live with poverty. As I argue, the history and social dynamics of these wards matter to the ways in which the people there live their religion.

Muslim minority youths in Greece were up to twenty years ago de facto excluded from tertiary education owing to a nexus of historical and political reasons. In 1996 an important affirmative action measure was taken as regards admission policy aiming at compensating for the years-long exclusion. This chapter is based on the testimonies of forty-four minority youths who made use of this affirmative measure and concerns their educational trajectories and their experiences as students. Their stories are framed within the educational system addressing minority learners, the existing socio-cultural context and the debate on affirmative action. The youths express a desire to break away from the constraints of minority life while they acknowledge that affirmative action provides a redress for social injustice and cannot alone provide an opportunity for upward mobility for all. Student life represents a huge social leap that demands the transcendence of multiple social and cultural barriers related to discrimination, geographical seclusion and past isolation. The student narratives oscillate between fear of distancing themselves from the familiarity of their community, but also a desire to break away from tradition and family constraints and make a life of their own.