Formations of Islamic Difference: Smelling "Suss" or "Intimate" at a Halal Butcher in Philadelphia

This paper analyzes how senses and emotions motivate halal consumption in Philadelphia. Specifically, it focuses on an ambiguous smell at a halal butcher that to one Muslim smells "suss" and to another smells "intimate." I show how these two smells motivate these two consumers in opposite directions, which both emerges from and shapes their respective enactments of Islamic tradition. This paper is based on 12 months of extensive site visits, formal interviews, and digital mapping of halal consumption in Philadelphia. Theoretically, it builds on conceptualizations of Islamic senses (Hirschkind 2006) and affects (Elias 2018; Chan-Malik 2018; Khoja-Moolji 2021) to show how Islamic tradition shapes and is shaped by the local acts of everyday consumption and the emotions that motivate them. Ultimately, I show how ethnographies of Islamic emotions, affects, and material culture can clarify formation of Islamic difference along lines of class, race, and devotion.