Although Muslims are now an important presence in Europe, little is known about the Muslim communities that exist in the Nordic and Baltic regions of Europe. This is the first comprehensive and detailed study of the history, context and development of Islamic institutions and Muslim groups in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, and includes chapters on Islam in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
With contributions by academics with long experience of the Muslim communities in question based on original research, this volume presents new and important perspectives within a comparative and regional framework. Islam in Nordic and Baltic Countries will be an important reference work for students of European history and Islamology, and will be valuable to all researchers and scholars interested in the development of Islam and Muslim communities at the strategic heart of Northern Europe.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
1. Islam and Muslims in the Nordic and Baltic Countries 2. The Faroe Islands and Iceland 3. Norway 4. Denmark 5. Sweden 6. Finland 7. Estonia 8. Latvia 9. Lithuania List of Contributors
Contributors
Aysha Özkan is a PhD student in Religious Studies at Södertörn University College in Sweden. She is currently writing her doctorate thesis about Muslim women in Estonia. Her main scholarly interests are contemporary expressions of Islam in Europe and issues concerning identity.
Tuomas Martikainen, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Researcher of the Academy of Finland working at the Department of Comparative Religion in Åbo Akademi University, Finland. His areas of speciality include religion in modern Europe, especially Finland, and religion in diaspora. His current project is from First to Second Generation Islam in Finland (2007-2010). His publications include Immigrant Religions in Local Society (2004, Åbo Akademi University Press) and several articles in international journals and books.
Christine M. Jacobsen is a post doctoral fellow at the department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo. Her work is in the field of international migration and ethnic relations with a focus on Muslim minorities in Europe. Jacobsen has published Tilhørighetens mange former. Unge muslimer i Norge (Pax: Oslo, 2002), and several articles the role of Islam in the lives of young Muslims in Norway. She defended her thesis Staying on the Straight Path: Religious Identities and Practices among Young Muslims in Norway in 2006.
Göran Larsson is post-doctoral researcher in the national research program, LearnIT, funded by the Knowledge Foundation. He earned his Ph.D in religious studies at Göteborg University, Sweden, in 2000. He has published several articles and books on Muslim in the West (both in history and present time), media and religion, youth culture and religion in Swedish and English. His book, Ibn García’s shu’ubiyya, Letter: Ethnic and Theological Tensions in Medieval al-Andalus, appeared from Brill Academic Press in the spring of 2003 and in 2006 he published an introductory book on the Koran in Swedish. Currently Larsson is an associate professor in the history of religions at the department of religious studies and theology, Göteborg University
Ingvar Svanberg is Lecturer at Södertörn University College and Senior Research Fellow at Department of Eurasian Studies, Uppsala University. His research interests includes Eurasian culture, religion and history. He has written numerous books and articles.
Emin Poljarevic is a Ph.D. student in Political and Social Science at the European University Institute (Italy) and a junior research fellow at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and the Silk Road Studies Program (Sweden). His primary research field is the development of Islamic movements in the post-Soviet space. He has previously published reports and articles on security and organized crime in Central Asia, Baltic region and the Balkans.
Egdunas Racius is currently an Associate Professor at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science of Vilnius University, Lithuania, where he chairs Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies section. He also is an Adjunct Professor in Islamic Studies at the Baltic Defence College, Tartu, Estonia. Racius earned his PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Helsinki, Finland.
