Suchergebnisse

This is a comparative study of Muslims in Finland and the Republic of Ireland, from the perspective of religious freedom and multiculturalism. The book consists of three parts: the first part discusses religious freedom and multiculturalism from a conceptual point of view and mainly within the context of Western Europe, culminating in the cases of Finland and Ireland; the second part deals with the establishment of Muslim communities in Europe in general, and in Finland and Ireland in particular; and the third part concerns Islam and education in these respective countries

The chapter introduces one way in which ethnographers can engage with social and symbolic boundary marking in a complex suburban setting where globally produced sectarian and political discourses intersect with immigrant regimes and multicultural policies. The Iraqis in diaspora in Finland who hold contrasting religious and political perceptions and complex personal histories of persecution must come to terms with the fact that the rapid fragmentation of Iraqi society is in many ways present in the form of tense social and symbolic boundaries in the multicultural suburban contexts in Finland. The Iraqis in diaspora in Finland are caught up in a collision of discourses not only with relation to violence and social fragmentation at home; they also stand between the increasingly contradictory refugee regime and multicultural social policies that essentialize identities on religious and sectarian terms. Multicultural work attempting to build bridges between diasporic communities and the Finnish state often fail to recognize the internal divisions within the diaspora and thus engender particular types of responses: silences and forms of silencing that are rooted in cultural and religious practices. ; Recent decades have witnessed a change in European governments' policies from benign neglect to active management of religious minorities. With respect to these minorities, it is Muslims who are often seen as the most challenging for the social order of a multicultural European society. Consequently, there is a growing need for studies on the opportunities that societies create or restrict for the development of Islam in Europe. One important issue concerns the Islamic religious education in European state schools. In Finland, Islamic education programmes are incorporated in the public school system. This chapter will look at the governance of Islamic religious education in Finland on three levels of administrative hierarchy: the state as a creator of legal opportunity structures, curriculum as a site of external regulation, and teachers as actors in internal regulation. ; Peer reviewed

In recent decades, Finnish research on Islam has started to expand rapidly; in the process, it has also widened to disciplines which previously did not necessarily focus on the study of religions. The article provides an ovewview of the range of these studies, concluded by Arabists, comparative religionists, theologians, anthropologists, and social scientists, with a close focus on the central themes and main methodological approaches used in these studies. The article is divided into four parts. In order to give some historical background to recent studies on Islam, the first part takes a quick look at the explorations of Georg August Wallin and the social-anthropological studies of Edvard Westermarck and Hilma Granqvist. Contemporary research is divided according to its main topic of interest into the following three parts: studies on the foundational source of Islam and subsequently theological questions; studies on Muslims in Muslim populated countries; and studies on Muslims in Europe and Finland. In the concluding remarks, the article considers some of the challenges posed by the current social and political situation for research on Islam and Muslims.

Résumé Quelles recherches, arabisants, spécialistes d'histoire comparée des religions, anthropologues et sociologues ont-ils menées sur les peuples musulmans ? L'orientalisme finlandais est illustré, au xix e siècle, par les recherches de Georg August Wallin, avant d'être élargi au domaine de l'anthropologie sociale par Edward Westermarck et Hilma Granqvist. Ce thème est poursuivi dans la seconde moitié du xx e siècle. La recherche finlandaise sur la religion et le monde musulman s'est alors rapidement développée avec le relief que prenait l'islam et son importance accrue dans la politique mondiale.

Recent decades have witnessed a change in European governments' policies from benign neglect to active management of religious diversity, where Islam is often seen as the most challenging for the European social order. However, the ways that this "management" is justified and undertaken varies from country to country and depends on the issues at hand. This paper will take up the issue of Islamic education in Finland and Ireland where it is incorporated into the public school system and where the state has taken an active role in order to control Islam in the field of education. The main argument of this article is that the "management" of Islamic education in both of the above-mentioned countries is ridden with contradictions arising from the difficulty to balance between an emphasis on particular national traditions, on the one hand, and public policies concerning religious diversity, on the other hand. Theoretically, the article will employ the perspective of multilevel governance which helps to widen the perspective from the state as a primary explanatory to different agents of the civil society in encountering religious diversity. ; Peer reviewed

Chapter 1. Introduction: Setting the stage -- Chapter 2. "There is Freedom of Religion in Finland, but…": The Helsinki Mosque Debate -- Chapter 3. Laestadians in "the world": reading the biggest Christian revival movement in Finland -- Chapter 4. Religious literacy and the governance of religious diversity in multi-faith schools: The Case of Islam -- Chapter 5. Islamic Divorce in Finland and Role of Mosques: Revisiting Binaries -- Chapter 6. Prevention of violent radicalization and extremism in Finland: the role of religious literacy -- Chapter 7. Conclusions: Religious literacy promotes absorptive capacity, inclusion and reflexivity in society.

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Figures Figures -- Tables -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- I. History of Muslim Presence and Immigration to Ireland -- 1. Sailors, Merchants, Migrants: From the Sack of Baltimore to World War II -- 2. Muslim Immigration to Ireland after World War II -- II. Mosques, Organisations and Leadership -- 3. Early Muslim Organisations and Mosques in Ireland -- 4. Political Islam in Ireland and the Role of Muslim Brotherhood Networks -- 5. Mosque Communities and Muslim Organisations in Dublin and Other Cities -- III. The Governance of Islam in the Republic of Ireland: Freedom of Religion and Islamic Education -- 6. Religious Freedom and Muslims in Ireland -- 7. Education and Muslim National Schools in Ireland -- IV. Diaspora and Identity -- 8. Muslim Women in Ireland -- Conclusion: Being Irish, Being Muslim -- Bibliography -- Index