New Muslims In The European Context

This material on Scandinavian converts tells the unique story of how Europeans embrace a new religion and their tendency to adjust and modify the social message of their new religion to the social values handled by the society they live in.

The interchange between Muslims and Europe has a long and complicated history, dating back to before the idea of 'Europe' was born, and the earliest years of Islam. There has been a Muslim presence on the European continent before, but never has it been so significant, particularly in Western Europe. With more Muslims in Europe than in many countries of the Muslim world, they have found themselves in the position of challenging what it means to be a European in a secular society of the 21st century. At the same time, the European context has caused many Muslims to re-think what is essential to them in religious terms in their new reality.In this work, H.A. Hellyer analyses the prospects for a European future where pluralism is accepted within unified societies, and the presence of a Muslim community that is of Europe, not simply in it.

To Be a European Muslim addresses some of the fundamental issues born of the several million strong Muslim presence in Europe in our times. Based on a thorough study of Islamic sources, it seeks to answer basic questions about European Muslims' social, political, cultural, and legal integration. -- Amazon.com.

This material on Scandinavian converts tells the unique story of how Europeans embrace a new religion and their tendency to adjust and modify the social message of their new religion to the social values handled by the society they live in.

How do Muslims in Europe acquire discursive and practical knowledge of Islam? How are conceptions of Islamic beliefs, values and practices transmitted and how do they change? Who are the authorities on these issues that Muslims listen to? How do new Muslim discourses emerge in response to the European context? This book addresses the broader question of how Islamic knowledge (defined as what Muslims hold to be correct Islamic beliefs and practices) is being produced and reproduced in West European contexts by looking at specific settings, institutions and religious authorities. Chapters examine in depth four key areas relating to the production and reproduction of Islamic knowledge: authoritative answers in response to explicit questions in the form of fatwas. the mosque and mosque association as the setting of much formal and informal transmission of Islamic knowledge. the role of Muslim intellectuals in articulating alternative Muslim discourses. higher Islamic education in Europe and the training of imams and other religious functionaries. Featuring contributions from leading sociologists and anthropologists, the book presents the findings of empirical research in these issues from a range of European countries such as France, Italy, the Netherlands and Great Britain. As such it has a broad appeal, and will be of great interest to students and scholars of Islamic studies, anthropology, sociology and religion.

This study examines ordinary British Muslims' everyday religious socialisation of children in early and middle childhood. It describes how Muslim families in a secular Western context attempt to pass on their faith to the next generation. It is rooted in detailed qualitative research with 60 Muslim families in one British city.

Five centuries after the expulsion of Muslims and Jews from Spain, Europe is once again becoming a land of Islam. At the beginning of a new millennium, and in an era marked as one of globalization, Europe continues to wrestle with the issue of national identity, especially in the context of its Muslim citizens. Muslim Europe or Euro-Islam brings together distinguished scholars from Europe, the United States, and the Middle East in a dynamic discussion about the Muslim populations living in Europe and about Europe's role in framing Islam today. Working at the knotty intersection of cultural identity, the politics of nations and nationalisms, and religious persuasions, this is an invaluable anthology of scholarship that reveals the multifaceted natures of both Europe and Islam.

The history and contemporary situation of Muslim communities in Eastern Europe are explored here from three angles. First, survival, telling of the resilience of these Muslim communities in the face of often restrictive state policies and hostile social environments, especially during the Communist period. next, their subsequent revival in the aftermath of the Cold War. And last, transformation, looking at the profound changes currently taking place in the demographic composition of the communities and in the forms of Islam practiced by them. The reader is shows a picture of the general trends common the Muslim communities of Eastern Europe, and the special characteristics of clusters of states, such as the Baltics, the Balkans, the Višegrad states and the European states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).