Perceptions of Islam in Europe

Culture, Identity and the Muslim ‘Other’

Edited by Hakan Yilmaz and Çagla E. Aykaç

For centuries, the Islamic world has been represented as the ‘other’ within European identity constructions — an ‘other’ perceived to be increasingly at odds with European forms of modernity and culture. With the perceived gap between Islam and Europe widening, leading scholars in this work come together to provide genuine and realistic analyses about perceptions of Islam in the West. The book bridges these analyses with in-depth case studies from Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey and other parts of the European Union. This study goes beyond the usual dichotomies of "clashes of civilizations" and "cultural conflict" to try to understand the numerous, diverse and multifaceted ways — some conflictual, some peaceful — in which cultural exchanges have taken place historically, and which continue to take place, between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds.

Preface * Introduction * THEORETICAL ESSAYS * Islam and European Modernity in Historical Perspective: Towards a Cosmopolitan Perspective—Gerard Delanty * Rethinking Gender Roles in Europe through Encounters with Islam—Deniz Kandiyoti * Islam: Western Modes of Use and Abuse—Stephanos Pesmazoglou * Constructions of European Identity in Relation to the Muslim ‘Oher’during the Age of Globalisation—Jeffrey Haynes * Europeanization and de-Europeanization of Islam—Sia Anagnostopoulou * CASE STUDIES * Islam and the European Union: Exploring the Issue of Discrimination—Çagla E. Aykaç * From Polish Muslims to Muslims in Poland: There and Back—Katarzyna Górak-Sosnowska * Imagining Islam: European Encounters with the Muslim World through the Lens of German Textbooks—Gerdien Jonker * Teaching Integration: Shifting Notions of the Place of Religion in the Public Sphere in the Netherlands—Welmoet Boender * Institutionalization of Islam in France: the Case of the French Council of Muslim Worship—Amel Boubekeur * Institutionalizing British and Italian Islam: Attitudes and Policies—Sara Silvestri * Transformations of Islamism and Changing Perceptions of Europe in Turkey—Kenan Cayir *