The politics of death and multiculturalism in Sweden

The article explores the politics of death at Swedish cemeteries using theories of multiculturalism as the analytical lens. It focuses on how group rights and recognition relate to individual rights and recognition in Sweden using Muslim burial practices as the empirical example, showing how social categories are shaped, upheld, and negotiated in a situation that cannot be reconstructed and remains in the hands of others than whom it concerns – namely, the dead. After a presentation of multiculturalism in Sweden and in-depth description of the context, namely, how to be dead in Sweden, it analyses Muslim burial practices. The politics of death in Sweden are replete with examples of what can be described as pragmatic multiculturalism. This pragmatic multiculturalism, however, confirms “Muslim” as a social category both now and in the future and risks hindering the individual rights and recognition of those Muslims who do not uphold community representatives’ interpretations of how to be a Muslim.