Living Islam in Europe: Muslim Traditions in European Contexts
The collaborative research project on “Muslims in Europe and Their Societies of Origin in Asia and Africa” invites contributions to a conference to be held from 7 to 9 May 2009 at the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin, Germany. This conference will present the results of the programme for the current research phase embedded in a wider context of academic scholarship. In consonance with the project the conference will discuss the various ways in which religious actors and institutions of Islam are taking root in today’s Europe. While recent scholarship has primarily focused on processes of secularisation of Muslims in Europe, this conference seeks to go further by discussing Muslim groups and individu- als following religious lifestyles. In this process issues have emerged that have preoccupied politicians, public opinion as much as scholars throughout the last decades: Can European social and political realities be reconciled with growing religious plurality in general and religious projects deriving from Islam in particular - and if so, on what premises? What are the concepts, aims, needs and fears Muslim actors pursue and confront in the public arena, and what institutions do they develop to channel their objectives? To what extent are European political and social realities reflected or inscribed in their religious, political, social and economic activities?