exploring muslim identities in europe & north america

Over the past few months the  al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah fī al-ʻIrāq wa-al-Shām  (ISIS or ISIL) ,  the jihadist militant group active primarily in Syria, swept through the Syrian-Iraqi border and, benefiting from the support and know-how of some of Saddam Hussein's army officers, pressed on for Baghdad virtually through the Mosul and Tikrit highway.  Its unprecedented success was too good not to make maximum use of. ISIS promptly renamed itself  al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah   - Islamic State - shedding its limiting territorial aspirations of its earlier phase. It did so by proclaiming the end of the territorial demarcation of the Middle East that came to be known as the Sykes-Picot agreement and by designating itself as the modern-day Caliphate. To add to the gravity of this emotionally loaded move, the establishment of this new Caliphate was said to be proclaimed 'one hundred years from the start of the dismantling of the last - Ottoman - caliphate', a claim that, ...

This video entitled  50+ EDL Vs 30+ Muslim Youths In Birmingham - EDL Run Out Of Brum  that has been seen 521,000 times is one of many that have appeared on YouTube over the past couple of years and document - some times even glorify - Muslim assertiveness in response to the activities of English Defense League . Such narratives of resistance are becoming more commonplace day by day and constitute part of an increasing in volume Muslim 'mythology of resistance' replete with heroes, memorable events and a geography of protest.  As we are arguing in our forthcoming book  Islam in Europe , this type of action constitutes one of the ways in which a European Muslim identity is forged, sometimes articulated to, often suppressing diverse ethnic and local identifications and experiences.  [The ways in which Muslims in Europe are represented by the mainstream or the extreme right provide] a lens through which they themselves see (and shape) their relationship wi...