Suchergebnisse

This article discusses the first experiences of a supplementary imam training program that has been designed in the Netherlands for community-based imams, female religious leaders and mosque committee members. This "Professionalization of Imams in the Netherlands" program (PIN) was set up as a cooperation of the Representative Council of Muslims (CMO) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, supported by state-subsidy. The article discusses how the initiators maneuvered within and beyond the politicized burden of expectation that has surrounded the establishment of European-based imam training programs for decades now. The article provides a unique insight into the program's design, its collaborative partners and participants' experiences, understanding the program as a site of deliberative engagement. It shows how the stakeholders ideally see ownership of the curriculum and trainee recruitment as a shared responsibility for the Muslim community and the public educational institution, whereas the state is willing to finance it. The article outlines how in this attempt the stakeholders must deal with some paradoxical dynamics that influence this notion of "shared ownership". Sharing these analytical observations and recommendations will hopefully help stakeholders involved in setting up similar European programs to make rational decisions on content and format of (future) supplementary programs, within and beyond fields of power, authority and interest.

Abstract
This review essay discusses four books published in Dutch by three Muslims and an 'ex-Muslim' in 2014 and 2015 that present different approaches to how to live as a ('good') Muslim in the West. The former Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali pleads for far-reaching amendments to Islamic rules concerning belief, ethics and law. Her view differs fundamentally from that of the Muslim theologian Razi Quadir (VU Amsterdam), who positions himself within the Sunni legal tradition. The third author, Muslim theologian and ministry official Mohamed Ajouaou (VU Amsterdam) argues that one should focus primarily on the diversity of Muslim religiosity in the Dutch secular context. Finally, in his autobiographical portrait, Dennis Abdelkarim Honing explains how he discovered legitimate options for living as a pious Muslim in the West. Each in their own way, the authors point to the phenomenon of accusing fellow Muslims being heretical or going astray, and its heavy impact on internal Islamic debate.

В Нидерландах за последние десятилетия возросло число новых мечетей, привлекая внимание ученых, политиков и обычных граждан. В этой статье представлена авторская классификация голландских мечетей, которая позволяет оценить, каким образом мечети интегрировались в городской ландшафт голландских городов и поселков. Каждый тип подчеркивает конкретные образы материального выражения этнической/социальной/религиозной идентичности мечети в голландском обществе. Приложен иллюстративный материал, наглядно демонстрирующий обоснованность этой классификации. Данная классификация будет служить аналитическим инструментом, призванным обеспечить понимание истории политики идентичности и динамических представлений об эстетике. ; In the Netherlands the number of newly built mosques has grown fast in the past decades, attracting attention of academic observers, politicians and citizens alike. This paper presents a seven-fold typology of Dutch mosques, as one possible way to discuss how mosques have integrated into the urban landscape of Dutch cities and towns. Each type emphasizes a specific imagery of the material expression of the mosque's ethnic-social-religious identity in Dutch society. Providing illustrative examples that support this classification, the typology will serve as analytical instrument to provide insight in the history of identity politics and dynamic notions of aesthetics.

Abstract
Modern European societies have set their 'moral covenants' in recent history and these underpin their social institutions. But what happens when new 'alien' religious institutions have to be included into the 'moral commonwealth' since a considerable number of people from different cultural backgrounds have come to live in Europe? How do the 'fragile formulas' (Salvatore) or 'moral covenants' (Selznick) underpin the institutionalisation process of Muslim institutions? How do the covenants persist and change? The institutionalisation processes of imam training programmes in Europe are excellent examples which can be used to examine the content and contemporary use of these 'moral covenants.' This paper explores the example of the Dutch 'imam training debate,' as a contribution to ongoing studies which focus on strategies of various actors involved in the institutionalisation process of Muslim learning institutions in Europe.

What constitutes 'relevant' and 'apt' Islamic knowledge and expert education of future Islamic authorities in Western Europe? This central point of departure of this Special Issue is a burdened question in the current public and political debate in Western Europe. In the last decades, higher education on Islam in Europe has predominantly taken place in two domains: in the publicly funded university context as Islamic Studies, and in the privately funded context of mosques, madrasa's and teaching institutes, often with strong links to Muslim countries of origin. In recent years, however, different answers have been formulated to this question; alternative initiatives have been taken—or are in the making—to train Islamic experts who are preparing for professional and academic careers in Europe. Publicly funded universities have started to organize imam training or Islamic theology programs, notably in Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries. Furthermore, private confessional Muslim institutes are now recruiting lecturers who also graduated from Western Islamic Studies university programs. This Special Issue focuses both theoretically and empirically on these new aspirations, initiatives, debates and practices of those various actors who navigate between and beyond. To understand these developments, we need a theoretical framework that is able to deconstruct the power related epistemological narratives constituting these dichotomies. Therefore, we will use this introductory editorial article to elaborate on how these spaces/places of departure are not absolute or analytically stable, but per definition uncertain, blurry and constantly 'in the making', constituted by what David Scott has called 'a problem-space'. Moreover, in addition to thinking only in terms of 'interstices' in order to overcome these dichotomies by way of 'bonding or bridging', but which often seems to presume an essential character to both ends, we suggest to consider these alternative initiatives in terms of 'assemblages'.