Summary: | This paper aims to emphasize the influence that “Classic„ Islamic Thought had on the contemporary European-Islamic one regarding the conceptualization and action of emigration (<i>hijra</i>-<i>hajara</i>) through the geographical and juridical redefinition of the Old Continent as a new “house„ (<i>dar/bayt</i>) in hosting a Muslim population. The analysis should also be considered in relation to the sectarian and violent phase which followed the peaceful one of the so-called “Arab Spring„ and the current deflagration of part of the Middle East. During the proto-Islamic historical phase, the term <i>muhajirun</i> was adopted to define those who made the <i>hijra</i>, referring to the prophet Muhammad’s followers in 622. They aimed to live according to religious behaviour and started to be different from their polytheist society of origin; the same term was also used to categorize those who partially populated the new conquered territories in the following decades: Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Iranian plateau, etc., and who decided to take root and become in-urbanized. The contemporary juridical, political, and religious perception, before and after 2011, started to consider a different “emigration„ perspective, which, not so differently from the original <i>hijra</i> conceptualization, is rooted in abandoning a land of warlike and sectarian violence to reach a geography where individual religious affiliation can be safeguarded.
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