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‪This article proposes to analyse the way in which Islamic economic actors name and define their professional practices, businesses and objects of trade. The semiotic variations and modulations observed both in Europe and in North Africa are to be linked and read in their interrelations with the political, social and cultural context of enunciation in which the Islamic referent appears. The mashrabiya metaphor helps us to discuss the public (in)visibility of the Islamic referent and to appreciate its degree of ostentation and discretion depending on the context of enunciation.‪