Islam in Europe
- LAST REVIEWED: 14 December 2009
- LAST MODIFIED: 14 December 2009
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195390155-0022
- LAST REVIEWED: 14 December 2009
- LAST MODIFIED: 14 December 2009
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195390155-0022
Introduction
Since the 1950s, Muslim minorities have emerged in Europe as a result of decolonization, labor migration, and conflict and civil strife in their home countries. Many came seeking asylum from conflict, while others were simply pursuing a higher standard of living. In the 1970s, the establishment of communal life through family unification brought the institutionalization of cultural and religious practices, such as the establishment of mosques. Islam has become public in Europe, as an estimated 15 million immigrants originating from Muslim-majority countries have settled in European nations over this time period. There has been a shifting discourse in identifying these groups, first as migrant laborers, then ethnic minorities and finally as a religious community. Thus, the welcoming of migrant laborers in postwar Europe shifted to identifying separate Turkish, Moroccan, Algerian, or Pakistani ethno-national groups. Researchers, in turn, have shifted their focus from socioeconomic conditions and ethno-national culture to religion. Currently, groups and individuals with backgrounds in Muslim-majority countries are identified as Muslims, as if they were part of a unified religious community.
General Overviews
Islam has adapted to different times and places, which has resulted in diverse forms of religiosity. The adaptation of Muslim religiosity in Europe has been addressed by various scholars as a shift from “Islam in Europe” to “European Islam.” Many have addressed the reinterpretation of Islam in accordance with the changing concerns and needs of young Muslims; the transformation of religious authority; and the secular, liberal democracy of European states. There is a general agreement that Islam is becoming “European,” but the content and process of this Europeanization are highly contested. On the one hand, Tibi 2002 proposes the emergence of a monolithic and privatized “Euro-Islam.” On the other hand, some scholars have developed a theoretical approach to explain the development of Islam in Europe as a continuation of an internally reformist trend within Islam developed in the late 19th century (e.g., Amir-Moazami and Salvatore 2003). The majority of studies fall between the normative and postmodern approaches. Tezcan 2003, like many others, argues for a Europeanization of Islam through the individualization of religious authority among Muslims. Cesari 2004 underlines the declining role of traditional sources of authority such as mosques and imams, and the rise of “new Islamic leaders” such as Tariq Ramadan (Ramadan 1999) and the Internet, which allows for the individualization of religious authority. Some believe that this process of individualization could eventually lead to a liberalization of Islam (see Mandaville 2001). Based on a survey of emerging Muslim political leaders in six European countries, Klausen 2005 suggests an internalization of liberal democracy. Roy 2004, meanwhile, emphasizes the fragmentation and democratization of religious authority, but without a significant change in doctrine. Despite their differences, scholars agree that “European Islam” is not monolithic but refers to the diverse religious experiences of Muslims who are no longer only in Europe but also of Europe.
Amir-Moazami, Shirin, and Armando Salvatore. “Gender, Generation, and the Reform of Tradition: From Muslim Majority Societies to Western Europe.” In Muslim Networks and Transnational Communities in and across Europe. Edited by Stefano Allievi and Jorgen Nielsen, 52–77. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2003.
These authors use Talal Asad’s suggestion to approach Islam as a “discursive tradition.” This allows them to focus on the internal dynamics of Islam that allow it to be adaptive.
Cesari, Jocelyne. When Islam and Democracy Meet: Muslims in Europe and the United States. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Focuses on how Muslims in Europe and the United States secularize through the emergence of new religious authorities and individualization. Includes a useful appendix containing a list of Islamic organizations and demographic information on Muslims in Europe and the United States.
Klausen, Jytte. The Islamic Challenge: Politics and Religion in Western Europe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
This book is based on empirical data of surveys and interviews with young Muslim leaders in six Western European countries.
Mandaville, Peter G. Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma. London: Routledge, 2001.
Combines international relations theory with anthropological insights in an effort to understand how Muslim networks have become global.
Nielsen, Jorgen. Muslims in Western Europe. 3d ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004.
A good introduction to European Islam by a leading scholar. First published in 1992.
Ramadan, Tariq. To Be a European Muslim. Leicester, UK: Islamic Foundation, 1999.
Ramadan reinterprets textual sources to justify active citizenship for Muslims to become European in the name of Islam. He provides an answer for young Muslims who are committed to their religion and loyal to their countries of residence.
Roy, Olivier. Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
Roy focuses on how the experience of Muslims outside Muslim-majority countries is shaping their religiosity and the trend toward a puritanical global Islam. He also addresses the European context in which Jihadists recruit followers.
Tezcan, Levent. “Das Islamische in den Studien zu Muslimen in Deutschland.” Berliner Journal fur Soziologie 32, no. 3 (2003): 237–261.
Provides a critical overview of the studies on Muslims and Islam in Germany.
Tibi, Bassam. “Muslim Migrants in Europe: Between Euro-Islam and Ghettoization.” In Muslim Europe or Euro-Islam? Politics, Culture, and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization. Edited by Nezar AlSayyad and Manuel Castells, 31–52. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2002.
Argues that, for Muslim integration in Europe, Islam should be limited to the private sphere.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Abbasid Caliphate
- `Abdolkarim Soroush
- 'Abduh, Muhammad
- ʿAbdul Razzāq Kāshānī
- Abraham
- Abu Sayyaf Group
- Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP)
- Adoption
- Afghani, Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-
- Africa, Islam in
- Afterlife, Heaven, Hell
- Ahmad Khan, Sayyid
- Ahmadiyyah Movement, The
- Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar
- `A'isha
- 'A’isha al-Baʿuniyya
- 'Alī Ibn Abī Ṭālib
- al-Ḥallāj, Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr
- Alawis
- Alhambra
- Al-Maʿarrī
- Almohads
- al-Sadiq, Ja`far
- Al-Siddiq, Abu Bakr
- Amin, Nusrat
- Ḥanbalīs
- Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM)
- Animals
- Apostasy
- Arab Painting
- Arab Salafism
- Arab Spring
- Arabic Language and Islam
- Arabic Praise Poems
- Archaeology, Islamic
- Architecture
- Art, Islamic
- Ashʿariyya
- Ashura
- Australia, Islam in
- 'Aysha Abd Al-Rahman
- Ayyubids
- Azhar, al-
- Baha'i Faith
- Balkans, Islam in the
- Banna, Hasan al-
- Bektashi Sufi Order
- Berbers
- Body
- Bourgiba, Habib
- Britain, Islam and Muslims in
- Caliph and Caliphate
- Caucasus
- Central Asia, Islam in
- Chechnya: History, Society, Conflict
- Christianity, Islam and
- Cinema, Turkish
- Civil Society
- Clash of Civilizations
- David Santillana
- Daʿwa
- Death, Dying, and the Afterlife
- Democracy and Islam
- Deoband Madrasa
- Disabilities, Islam and
- Dome of the Rock
- Dreams and Islam
- Dress and Fashion
- Druze
- Education
- Ethics
- Europe, Islam in
- European Imperialism
- Fahad al-Asker
- Fairuz
- Fana and Baqa
- Farangī Maḥall
- Fatima
- Female Islamic Education Movements
- Finance, Islamic
- Fiqh Al-Aqalliyyat
- Five Pillars of Islam, The
- Gender and Sexuality
- Gender-based Violence and Islam
- Ghadir Khumm
- Ghazali, al-
- Gökalp, Mehmet Ziya
- Gülen, Muhammed Fethullah
- Granada, Nasrids of
- Hadith
- Hadith and Gender
- Hadith Commentary
- Hadith: Shiʿi
- Hamas
- Hanafi School, The
- Hasan
- Hausa
- Hijaz
- Hijaz Railway
- Hilli, al-
- Hip-Hop and Islam
- Historiography
- History of Astronomy and Space Science in the Islamic Worl...
- Hizb al-Nahdah
- Homosexuality
- Human Rights
- Husayn
- Ibadiyya
- Ibn al-ʿArabī
- Ibn Baṭṭūṭa
- Ibn Bâjjah
- Ibn Khaldun
- Ibn Rushd (Averroës)
- Ibn Sīnā
- Ibn Taymiyya
- Ibn Ṭufayl
- Ijtihad
- 'Ilm al-Khilāf / Legal Controversy
- Indonesia, Islam in
- Inheritance
- Inji Efflatoun
- Internet, Islam and the
- Iqbal, Muhammad
- Iran, Islam in
- Iranian Revolution, The
- Islam, Environments and Landscapes in
- Islam in Ethiopia and Eritrea
- Islam, Nature, and the Environment
- Islamic Aesthetics
- Islamic Exegesis, Christians and Christianity in
- Islamic Law and Gender
- Islamic Print Media
- Islamic Salvation Front (FIS)
- Islamic Studies, Food in
- Islamic Trends and Movements in Contemporary Sub-Saharan A...
- Islamophobia
- Japan, Islam in
- Jesus
- Jewish-Muslim Relations
- Jihad
- Jilani, `Abd al-Qadir al (Gilani)
- Ka`aba
- Karbala in Shiʿi Ritual
- Khaled Al Siddiq
- Kharijites
- Kharijites and Contemporary Scholarship, The
- Khatami, Muhammad
- Khomeini, Ruhollah Mousavi
- Kurds, The
- Law, Islamic Criminal
- Literature and Muslim Women
- Maher Zain
- Malcolm X
- Malikis
- Maḥmūd Gāvān
- Marriage
- Martyrdom (Shahada)
- Mary in Islam
- Mawdudi, Sayyid Abuʾl-Aʾla
- Medina
- Medina, The Constitution of
- Method in the Study of Islam
- Middle East and North Africa, Islam in
- Mihna
- Miskawayh
- Modern and Contemporary Egyptian Art
- Modernism
- Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin
- Moses
- Māturīdī
- Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī
- Muhammad
- Muhammad, Elijah
- Muhammad, Tomb of
- Muharram
- Muslim Brotherhood
- Muslim Nonviolence
- Muslim Pilgrimage Traditions in West Africa
- Muslim Television Preachers
- Mutʿa
- Mu`tazilites
- Nana Asma'u bint Usman ‘dan Fodio
- Nation of Islam
- Nationalism
- Nigeria, Islam in
- Nizar Qabbani
- North America, Islam in
- Nursi, Said
- On the History of the Book in Islamic Studies
- Organization of Islamic Cooperation
- Orientalism and Islam
- Ottoman Empire, Islam in the
- Ottoman Empire, Millet System in the
- Ottoman Women
- Pamuk, Orhan
- Papyrus, Parchment, and Paper in Islamic Studies
- PAS
- People of the Book
- Philippines, Islam in the
- Philosophy, Islamic
- Pilgrimage and Religious Travel
- Political Islam
- Political Theory, Islamic
- Post-Ottoman Syria, Islam in
- Pre-Islamic Arabia/The Jahiliyya
- Principles of Law
- Progressive Muslim Thought, Progressive Islam and
- Purity
- Qaeda, al-
- Qaradawi, Yusuf al-
- Qur'an
- Qurʾan and Contemporary Analysis
- Qurʾan and Context
- Qutb, Sayyid
- Razi, Fakhr al-Din al-
- Reformist Muslims in Contemporary America
- Russia, Islam in
- Sadra, Mulla
- Safavids
- Sahara, The Kunta of the
- Salafism
- Sarekat Islam
- Science and Medicine
- Shafi`is
- Shari`a (Islamic Law)
- Shari'ati, Ali
- Shaṭṭārīya
- Shaykhism
- Shiʿa, Ismaʿili
- Shiʿa, Twelver
- Shi`i Islam
- Shi‘I Shrine Cities
- Shi'i Tafsir, Twelver
- Sicily, Islam in
- Sociology and Anthropology
- South Asia, Islam in
- Southeast Asia, Islam in
- Spain, Muslim
- Sīra
- Sufism
- Sufism in the United States
- Suhrawardī, Shihāb al-Dīn
- Sukarno
- Sunna
- Sunni Islam
- Tabari, -al
- Tablighi Jamaʿat
- Tafsir
- Tafsir, Women and
- Taha, Mahmūd Muhammad
- Taliban
- Tanzīh and Tashbīh in Classical Islamic Theological Though...
- The Babi Movement
- The Barelvī School of Thought
- The Nizari Ismailis of the Persianate World
- Theology
- Turabi, Hassan al-
- Turkey, Islam in
- Turkish Language, Literature, and Islam
- Twelver Shi'ism in Modern India
- Twelver Shi'ism in Pakistan
- Umayyads, The
- Wahhabism
- Women in Islam
- Yemen, Islam in
- Zaydiyya