exploring muslim identities in europe & north america

A couple of days before the horrific Woolwich events, I was checking the Quilliam Foundation website - a site that has proved to be a reliable barometer of trends in  a government-sponsored industry that claims to have the answer to  islamic radicalism. The 'in the media' section of the website featured on the entry page was dominated by a striking headline on Boston:  Boston, the latest 'Triumph' of a Global Jihad Brand . Less than 48 hours later, the terrible news of the Woolwich attack on the unfortunate British soldier reached me  My first reaction was one of horror, and I think I was not alone in feeling and thinking in this way. How can something like this happen in the middle of a busy neighbourhood in the capital of the country? Especially after Boston, is this 'solitary' type of violence going to become the pattern of 'terrorism'? And, upon reflection, could one speak of a terrorist crime in this instance? In some ways, the effect of th...

Although not directly related to the theme of this weblog I felt it was important to dedicate a note to the Words of Women from the Egyptian Revolution project which  sheds light on, and documents the participation of women in the Egyptian revolution. Although the Egyptian middle class is over-represented in the women interviewed, the sheer diversity of outlooks, lifestyles and pathways to taking part in the protests and the movement that surrounds them reveals the complexity of the social dynamics in Egypt today. And, more importantly, the voices of the women interviewed are voices of determination, courage, steadfastness and resilience, yet, at the same time, they are voices of ordinary people, simple, devoid of bravado and pretense. This is a worthy project that explores the encounter of the mundane and the trivial with the heroic, that injects the experiences of ordinary women in a male-dominated collective memory. And although  the enunciators are women...

A report on Muslim Participation in Contemporary Governance published by the Centre for the Study and Citizenship at University of Bristol, examines British Muslims’ inclusion in governance related to the areas of equality and cohesion; faith sector governance; and security. Drawing upon an analysis of public policy since 1997, 112 interviews with key policymakers and Muslim activists, as well as case studies of Birmingham, Leicester, and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, the report suggests that ”Muslims have become increasingly visible in governance recently” and that, through a combination of developments within national level legislation and policy and increasing Muslim activism in the areas of equalities and the recognition of Muslim distinctiveness within legislation and social policy. Overall, the report evaluated the degree of activity and effectiveness of Muslim interaction with government in three key areas: presence, voice and impact. The report asks a number of signif...

Introduction: Back to the Drawing Board: Rethinking Multiculturalism Spyros A. Sofos   &   Roza Tsagarousianou pages 263-271 The Terror in Norway and the Multiculturalist Scapegoat Elisabeth Eide pages 273-284 European Muslim Audiences and the Negotiation of Belonging Roza Tsagarousianou pages 285-294 Ethno-Cultural Clusters and Russian Multicultural Cities: The Case of the South Russian Agglomeration Oxana Karnaukhova pages 295-305 ‘And People's Concerns Were Genuine: Why Didn't We Listen More?’: Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Recognition in Europe Umut Ozkirimli pages 307-321 excerpt from the introductory article Immigration and the Limits of Tolerance Current debates about immigration in Europe, in many ways are not that dissimilar to those of the 1980s as they still revolve around the question of whether (national) societies have the capacity to ‘absorb’ people with different cultures and values. This qu...

originally published as  'Muslimska föreningar i Malmö och Lund – en ögonblicksbild' in islamologi.se on December 2nd, 2010 and translated from the Swedish original by Spyros A. Sofos By Erica Li Lundqvist & Leif Stenberg If we compare with the Lund municipal statistics from 2006, 136 different countries of origin are represented, with the largest group coming from Nordic countries (21%) followed by Germany (7.1%), the US (4.9%), Poland (4.8 %) and Iraq (4.7%). A total of 1635 people originate in Asia, with Iraq being the single largest country. The district of North Fäladen has the largest proportion of foreign nationals (1468), representing 13% of its population. [13] According to Imam Ali Ibrahim, of Lund's Islamic Center, there are approximately between 4 and 5,000 Muslims in the town, however, not all of them practicing. [14] During a typical Friday visit, for example, to the mosque, there are around 90 people while the larger festivals can attract u...

translated from 'Muslimska föreningar i Malmö och Lund – en ögonblicksbild'  originally published in islamologi.se on December 2nd, 2010 and translated by Spyros A. Sofos By Erica Li Lundqvist & Leif Stenberg During a visit to the urban district of Rosengård in Malmö in order to photograph the "cellar mosques", we suddenly got lost in the suburban jungle. A group of children and young people noticed us wondering and asked us what we were doing. "We are looking for a mosque", we said, after which they replied in chorus: "There are many!" And they pointed in all directions. The development of Muslim neighbourhoods in Malmö and Lund has been gaining momentum since the first Muslim community was established in Malmö in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Today, Islam is a natural, albeit controversial, part of Swedish society. Nevertheless, very little commentary on Islam in Sweden is premised on comprehensive empirical investigation. [1] A prob...

This is Rasheed Wallace. He is Muslim, and he is wearing an ensemble from the Middle Ages Hats off to this amazing and imaginative attempt to deconstruct our stereotypical views of Muslims. For a humorous yet sober treatment of the subject visit http://muslimswearingthings.tumblr.com/ Former NPR analyst Juan Williams, among other ignorant people, has an irrational fear of Muslims, and thinks you can identify them based on what they look like. Here I will post pictures of Muslims wearing all sorts of things in an attempt to refute that there is such a thing as "Muslim garb" or a Muslim look.

An interesting article from the Sunday edition of the Greek newspaper, TO VIMA, traces the changes that one of the very few European societies that had a historical experience of coexistence with Islam is undergoing. Although Eastern Orthodox Christians living in the southern Balkans have lived side by side with Ottoman Muslims for over five centuries, today, Greeks are much more sceptical about the presence of Muslims and Islam in the country. According to some sources, there may be 830,000 to 1,000,000 Muslim residents and citizens in Greece. Whereas, in the past, the minority (Muslim citizens of Greece exempted from the Lausanne Treaty population exchange) were concentrated in Northeastern Greece, today the bulk of Greece's Muslims (primarily migrants from various Muslim countries, but also an increasing number of converts) live throughout the country but primarily in the Athens conurbation. Since the establishment of the Greek state in the 1830s, Orthodox Chr...

Switzerland has become the first European country to ban the construction of minarets in its constitution . The proposal grew out of the campaign of a number of conservative groups in the normally sleepy Swiss country town of Langenthal against an application to build a minaret next to a mosque.   The proposal was launched by members of the rightwing Swiss People's Party and the ultra conservative Federal Democratic Union. The ultra-conservative Swiss People's Party (SVP) has displayed in the past a flair for the dramatic at the expense of migrants who happen to have the wrong colour or to profess the wrong religion. In 2007 it got its largest ever share of the vote after a sleek anti-foreigner campaign that was explicitly racist. Ulrich Schüler, an SVP parliamentarian and leading member of the anti-minaret movement, trying to rationalize his party's position has argued that the minarets are political rather than religious. ...

Yet another instance of selective concerns on the part of one of Britain's MPs. Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant has expressed reservations about a scheme supported by the city's Muslims to build a mosque and create a Muslim burial ground even before an application reached the planning department of the local authority. Mr Fabricant warned against a development which, in his opinion, would not be in-keeping with the character of the city. While he acknowledges that  it is for the Council to make its own planning decisions, his own view is 'that domes and minarets are not appropriate in a heritage City like Lichfield'. Commenting on the possibility of an amplified system of calling the faithful toprayers, Mr Fabricant said “I do not think it right that those not of the Muslim faith should be subjected to calls to prayer against their will. Tolerance works both ways and one religion should not seek to impose itself on those of another or no religion.” It is alarming to...

A few days ago, the Sun carried a story based around remarks made on Premier Christian Radio by Alison Ruoff, an evangelical member of the Church of England's General Synod, in which she called for British Muslims to be prevented from building any more mosques in the UK. "No more mosques in the UK. We are constantly building new mosques, which are paid for by the money that comes from oil states. We have only in this country as far as we know, 3.5 to four million Muslims. There are enough mosques for Muslims in this country, they don't need any more. We don't need to have sharia law which would come with more mosques imposed upon our nation, if we don't watch out, that would happen. "If we want to become an Islamic state, this is the way to go. You build a mosque and then what happens? You have Muslim people moving into that area, all the shops will then become Islamic, all the housing will then become Islamic and as the Bishop of Rochester has so wisely poi...