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

Spyros Sofos, professeur de sciences politiques à Lund, commune de la même région, et auteur de divers essais sur l'Islam, le nationalisme et l'Europe, nous explique les raison et les conséquences de l'islamophobie grandissante dans la localité de Malmö. Qu'est-ce qu'être musulman? Tout d'abord être musulman signifie tellement de choses différentes ! L'Etat Suédois a une vision très restreinte de ce qu'est être musulman. En effet, à Malmö les populations dites “musulmanes” viennent d'Iraq, de Bosnie, du Liban, d'Iran, de Turquie, d'Afghanistan, de Somalie ou du Pakistan. Ranger toutes ces communautés dans un seul bloc appelé "musulman" est erroné : il existe des musulmans très pratiquants et d'autres beaucoup plus séculaires, comme les Bosniaques. En fait, certains jeunes ne sont même pas pratiquants du tout, mais leurs parents le sont, on peut dire qu'ils sont culturellement musulmans. L'Islam est-elle une religion

Suède: Un islam intégré et accepté? by Elvire Michel from Europa, #36 Spring 2013 http://www.journaleuropa.info/Formats/Articles/un-islam-integre-et-accept e Fortement attachée aux valeurs de tolérance et de protection des minorités, la Suède encourage fortement l'immigration, notamment celle de réfugiés politiques originaires du Moyen-Orient. Le territoire suédois aux allures paradisiaques pour ces peuples est pourtant loin d'être idyllique. Malmö en particulier souffre d'une sinistre réputation dans le reste du pays. Malmö, ville dynamique située à l'extrême sud de la Suède, dispose d'une population de 50,000 musulmans pour 300,000 habitants. Le quartier de Rosengard, majoritairement peuplé par des immigrés musulmans, a été sujet à de violentes émeutes et protestations en 2008, suite aux prises de parti dans le conflit Israëlo-Palestinien, et suite à la possible fermeture du Centre islamique culturel, utilisé comme lieu de prière. Les médias et les mouvements

A research team based at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence has released a report on the English Defence League (EDL) and its European allies . The report provides a rare insight on the EDL and its strategy of linking up with other European islamophobic movements which the authors of the report  refer to collectively as the European Counter-Jihad Movement. According to the report In the last several months  this loose international alliance has begun to exhibit a more developed  operational structure.  Based on fieldwork in Europe and interviews with the  leading figures of the  European Counter-Jihad Movement, the report points out that the latter, u nlike most other far-right organisations, remains  a one-issue movement, and has yet to show an interest in  expanding its scope to cover other popular concerns. The authors suggest that the  European Counter-Jihad Movement  espouses what they call "an assertive cultural  national

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 que

This entry was prompted by an article by Andrew Brown that appeared in Saturday's Guardian. Asking whether Sunday's Swedish election could give power to the country's far right, Brown identifies the potency and divisive character of the issue of immigration in Swedish politics. But immigration is not a new phenomenon in Sweden as it has traditionally been a haven for various refugees/asylum seekers and economic migrants. It is clear that the issue the far right Swedish Democrats have been exploiting is Muslim immigration in Sweden and the impact this has on Swedish society at local and national level. But, I think more importantly, Brown's article focuses on the Rosengård district of Malmö and identifies the conflicting perceptions about access and usage of this urban space as one of the key elements in shaping perceptions about Islam, immigration and attitudes towards foreigners in the Swedish election. This is by no means something new. Back in 2004, Fox N

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