exploring muslim identities in europe & north america

July 1, 2013      by Harris Beider       Open Society Initiative for Europe In May, two young British men of Nigerian origin murdered a British soldier named Drummer Lee Rigby on the streets of Woolwich, in southeast London. The event made national and international news. Photos and videos in which one of the men explains his actions were captured by bystanders and circulated widely on social media. The perpetrators, who were born in the UK and had grown up in stable, devoutly Christian homes before converting to Islam, justified the killing as retribution for Britain’s military engagement in Afghanistan and other Muslim countries. In many ways, the response to this event has been predictable. The British government has started a review of its strategy on violent extremism, which could focus on curbing the activities of “hate preachers,” working with schools to save young people from drifting into extremism, and increasing the powers of surveillance on ...

by Tobias Hubinette       Open Society Initiative for Europe Since May 20, the media, both in and out of Sweden, has been dominated by the riots in certain suburbs of Stockholm. Reports have focused on outbursts of violence which include large-scale vandalism and damage to cars and shops in the poorer areas of Greater Stockholm with large concentrations of ethnic minorities. Following the fatal shooting on May 12 of an elderly man by the police in the northwest neighborhood of Husby, Greater Stockholm, violence erupted with the burning of cars, arson, and attacks on police on May 19. It soon spread to many other similar suburbs in the periphery of Greater Stockholm such as Fittja, Tensta, Flemingsberg, Hjulsta, Jakobsberg, Hagsätra, Rågsved, Skärholmen, and Skogås. At the time of writing, after eight nights of uninterrupted suburban unrest, the vandalism and the violence have also spread to other Swedish cities like Göteborg, Örebro, and Linköping. Although the scale o...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/riots-in-stokholm-continue-as-youth-vent-frustrations-a-901704.html By  Frauke Lüpke-Narberhaus For most people, Sweden is a place of prosperity and order. But this week, a different side of the country is showing itself. Many in Stockholm's suburbs are deeply frustrated and demanding to be heard. Those familiar with the capital's immigrant neighborhoods are not surprised. It hasn't taken long for such images to seem almost normal: In the Stockholm suburb of Husby, six cars stood in flames as some 400 people looked on when the fire department arrived to extinguish the fires on Thursday. "We are receiving reports that there are a lot of people there," a police spokesman told news agency TT as the situation developed. It was the fifth consecutive night that the Swedish capital has been wracked by rioting. Other suburbs, too, saw rampaging youth on Thursday night. Three cars were lit on fire in Norsborg wh...

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 ...

"ISLAM AND NATIONALISM". A new book series from Palgrave Macmillan. Series editors Umut Özkırımlı and Spyros A. Sofos - Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University. International Advisory Board includes (in alphabetical order) Seyla Benhabib, Sondra Hale, Deniz Kandiyoti, Saba Mahmood, Jorgen S. Nielsen, James Piscatori, Gayatri C. Spivak, Bryan S. Turner, Peter van der Veer, Nira Yuval-Davis and Sami Zubaida. One of the main objectives of this series is to explore the relationship between Islam, nationalism and citizenship in its diverse expressions. The series intends to provide a space for approaches that recognize the potential of Islam to permeate and inspire national forms of identification, and systems of government as well as its capacity to inspire oppositional politics, alternative modes of belonging and the formation of counterpublics in a variety of local, national or transnational contexts. By recognizing Islam as a transnational phenomenon and situati...