exploring muslim identities in europe & north america

There is a line separating Western and Eastern Europeans when it comes to public attitudes toward Muslims according to the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan organization that generates data on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world .  The questions Pew Center asked related to the public's acceptance of Muslims in familial, and public contexts as well as to the association of religion to national identity.  The continental divide in attitudes and values can be extreme in some cases. For example, in nearly every Central and Eastern European country polled by the  Pew Research Center ,  fewer than half  of adults say they would be willing to accept Muslims into their family; in nearly every Western European country surveyed,  more  than half  say they would accept a Muslim into their family.  In a separate question, Western Europeans also are much more likely than their Central and Eastern European counterparts to say they would accept Muslims in their neighborhoods. F

Islam in Europe: Public Spaces and Civic Networks Spyros A. Sofos and Roza Tsagarousianou Published by Palgrave Macmillan (October 2013) ISBN 9781137357779 Islam in Europe delves into the daily routines of European Muslim communities in order to provide a better understanding of what it means to be a European Muslim today. Instead of positing particular definitions of being Muslim, this volume invites and encourages a diverse body of 735 informants from Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK to reflect on who they are and on the meaning and place Islam has in such considerations. Drawing upon extensive fieldwork and suggesting novel ways of seeing the phenomenon of European Islam and the continent's Muslim communities, Islam in Europe examines how through their practices, discourses, face to face and mediated interaction, European Muslims construct notions or identity, agency, solidarity and belonging, or how they negotiate and redefine religion, tradition, authori