Muslims in the West

‘What else could it be? It is an exotic which, though it may be artificially nurtured like some tropical plant in a hothouse, can never have the vitality it has on its native soil’ (p. 92). Thus did the Liverpool Review dismiss as no more than an audacious cultural experiment the burgeoning community of Victorian Muslim converts that gathered around the iconic and iconoclastic Abdullah William Quilliam in 1890. The subsequent influx of substantial migrant communities into Britain has somewhat complicated matters, and expressions of British Islam today are tightly bound with the imports of foreign culture. Modern incarnations of the Liverpool Review’s verdict abound: a persistent strand of the polyvocal discourse that has exploded around the Muslim presence in Britain insists that a
commitment to Islam—and, by extension, the culture of the Orient it has historically been wedded to—undermines the patriotism expected of British subjects. Put differently, facing Makka to pray five times a day requires one to turn one’s back on Queen and country; or, in the stark dichotomization of the
Poet of Empire, Kipling: ‘East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.’ Identity, allegiance and belonging have thus crystallized into critical buzzwords through which diaspora communities are examined, and the evocative oxymoron captured in the title of this book assails today’s believer just as much as it did yesteryear’s convert.

Abstract
Turkish Muslims have been living in United States of America for more than a century and are still immigrating
today. Although in number they are a large Muslim faith community, they lack a prominent social voice or
network comparable to other Muslim ethnic groups. Despite the difficulty faced with anti-Muslim sentiments
following the September 11th tragedy, Turks have made many positive advances in gaining stature. Although
Turks have established both civil and religious foundations in the USA, plans for a structural establishment have
been less successful. Turks who migrated to the USA after the 1960s began to realize that the lack of resources
for practicing their faith is affecting their social values and identification. The need for faith based institutions
became ever so urgent and they steadily continue to build. Despite the fact that Turks have not had a strong
institutional base, the future for building new faith based centers is promising. It also seems as though the future
leaders are brighter than their pioneers. This research will attempt to explain the stages of the process of
institutionalization of Turkish Mosque or faith center, the foundational and emerging history, recent
achievements, as well as the challenges of reaching each stage in order to carry out social and religious activities.
How these challenges effect the community as a whole and how this process can eventually result in a more
structural presence of Turkish Islam in USA will be discussed as well.

The volume as a whole provides a welcome corrective to increasingly frequent rhetoric that pathologises young Muslims as either a threat to national security or a disgruntled underbelly of delinquents, dropouts and deadbeats. It also challenges the stereotypical characterisation of a monochrome British Muslim community inhabiting a rigid, static structure called Islam. But, alas, it seems the exorbitant price-tag will restrict its readership to those with access to university libraries. Read in conjunction with other recent publications, such as Maruta Herding’s Inventing the Muslim Cool or Shelina Janmohamed’s vivacious
Generation M, this book documents an important shift in intergenerational dynamics as hybridised modes of cultural expression drawing simultaneously upon multiple repertoires of lived experience develop organically in the Western Muslim diaspora. Alternatively, one also detects a basic synergy with the poignant yet provocative invective delivered by Afua Hirsch (2018) against the unspoken structures of racial and class hegemony that continue to permeate British society. A diaspora-born generation, clearly, has come of age amidst an aching vortex of questions concerning ethnicity, identity and belonging. The
contributions gathered in this volume shed light on how Muslim-inflected responses play out in the ordinary life experiences of young British citizens.

The language of trauma has been used by many to explain what happens to individuals and to the collectivities to which they belong. Some of these traumatic experiences stem from interpersonal violence, such as sexual and physical abuse or domestic violence. Others may stem from witnessing interpersonal violence and victimisation, such as witnessing or being a victim of a serious accident, war, a terror attack, or experiencing the loss of a loved one. Regardless of its cause, trauma, whether individualistic or collective, arises from the experience of pain and suffering post ‘an extraordinary event’ so disruptive that it triggers an emotional response and public attention. This chapter will situate the experiences of trauma felt by the surviving Muslim women victims of the Christchurch terror attack that occurred on March 15, 2019, within the scope of collective trauma theory. We do this by examining two types of collective trauma unique to the Christchurch experience: collective trauma through personal experience and collective trauma through empathy. Although our focus is on the Muslim women victims and survivors of the attack, we also show how ‘meaning-making’ processes such as the media and the New Zealand government helped define the type of pain and suffering felt by the victims. We discuss how this was translated into a broader form of collective suffering whereby the Muslim community, the community of New Zealand, and those abroad felt victimised by the event on a traumatic level.

The purpose of this topic is to examine the phenomenon of Islamic call, its entering in American scientific community and Islamic studies. It includes interpretation and correlation of the Islamic terms like da’wah, ijtihad, and jihad; investigation the roots of spreading Muslim da’wah in the USA; defining the conditions of the Islamic call spreading in the USA scientific community; showing main periods of da’wah dissemination in the USA society and the American Islamic Studies. A special consideration is given to the work of the Centre for Muslim-Christian understanding headed by J.Esposito. This paper deals with the problem of forming ties between Muslim and secular scientific community structures too.

Relying on an ethnographic research conducted both in the UK and Iraq, this article explores issues of cultural and religious identities among London-based young British Iraqi Shiis. Using Stuart Hall’s notions of ‘articulation’ and ‘new ethnicities’, I analyse how different realities and experiences of space and class shape young British Iraqi Shiis self-identification in relation to socio-political, religious and ethnic belongings.

Since its inception in 1920s British India, the Tablighi Jama’at (TJ) has grown into a global movement of faith renewal, animating grassroots Muslim communities around the world. Based on sustained ethnographic fieldwork with the British branch of the movement, this article proposes a concept of ‘intra-religious conversion’ to capture a key modality of its impact in everyday Muslim lives. By this is denoted a shift from a nominal form of Islamic practice to one of passionate devotion. Multiple interview narratives are presented to dissect the conversion experience through a series of precipitating push and pull factors, of which ‘affective ties’ and ‘intensive interaction’ emerge as key. Three key reasons for TJ’s enduring appeal to British-born male Muslims are suggested: (1) its propensity to transform the individual’s relationship with his religion from a ‘passive consumer’ to an ‘active purveyor’; (2) its fostering of strong bonds of belonging and brotherhood; (3) its ability to offer certainty in a world of flux. The findings challenge previous scholarship on British TJ by demonstrating its ongoing popularity among successive generations of Muslims, though reasons why followers may drift away from the movement after undergoing life-changing intra-religious conversion experiences are also explored.

Saint Petersburg served from the end of the nineteenth century as a transit point for Mishär Tatars moving to the Grand Duchy of Finland. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a small community had already formed in Finland, but its members maintained regular contacts with their relatives and connections in the Sergach district (Nizhny Novgorod province), Saint Petersburg and other regions. Contrary to common belief, these ties were not interrupted even after the October Revolution of 1917. Throughout most of the 1920s, Tatars and others crossed the Soviet-Finnish border illegally. Tatars living in independent Finland also sent considerable financial aid to their contacts in Leningrad with the help of couriers.
The nature of the ties between the Tatar emigrants in Finland and the Tatars of Leningrad can be illustrated by the materials of one criminal case. This case was instituted by the Soviet political police against representatives of the Tatar Muslim community in Leningrad in 1931. Only after several arrests and tightening border control was communication between the Tatars in Finland and Leningrad interrupted. I suggest that the Mishär Tatars in Leningrad and Finland constituted a single social and cultural space until the 1930s, when the connections between them were blocked. The ensuing divide had a large impact on the identity of the Tatars living in Finland, who began developing a separate Finnish Tatar identity just a few years after the termination of contacts.

In the grim days following the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, news commentator and retired Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters appeared on Fox News, saying: " Not all Muslims are terrorists, but virtually all terrorists are Muslim. " Peters's statement represents the sort of venomous rhetoric that has emerged all too often this election. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has put an immigration ban on Muslims at the core of his nativist pitch to voters, alleging that American Muslims and mosques are knowingly harboring terrorists. While many Americans, including President Obama, have spoken out against Trump's characterization of American Muslims as terrorists, there has been little opposition to the premise that all terrorists are Muslims. The prevalence of Islamophobia has been coupled with a selective definition of terror under US law, contributing to the belief that all terrorists are Muslims and hence that all Muslims be viewed with suspicion, justifiably hated, excoriated, and even banned. At the same time, amplification by social media reinforces hostile political rhetoric, making legislative reform that protects Muslims as effectively as the rest of the population more difficult. This paper dissects the premise that terror is a particularly Muslim problem and analyzes the key role that social media is playing in this issue. The paper begins with a quantitative snapshot of both anti-Muslim and anti-Islamophobic Google searches and statements made on social media. It then moves to a qualitative analysis of the low rates of reporting and prosecution of hate crimes against Muslims, paying particular attention to differing standards of proof required for these prosecutions. The second section looks at terror prosecutions of Muslims, noting how speech—and especially online speech— is treated very differently by courts when it involves Muslim American defendants and the mere possibility of terror connections. In paying particular attention to prosecutions under the Material Support for Terrorism Statute, we note how concerns raised in the prosecutorial context of hate crimes (such as requirements of intent and purposefulness) are summarily discarded when they arise in relation to terrorism cases. The analysis reveals a deep double standard between the identification and conviction of domestic and foreign terrorism. Under US law as it exists today, there is no provision criminalizing the material support of a domestic terror organization. This means that statements made by white supremacist groups that incite violence against minorities are provided First Amendment protection and cannot be prosecuted without meeting a very high standard of proof. The consequence is that hate speech against Muslims is not simply tolerated and largely unpunished, but normalized into a valid political position. Second, there is no legislation criminalizing material support for domestic terrorism, or even actual acts of domestic terrorism. What has no legal reality in turn has no moral or social reality. The statement that " all terrorists are Muslim " is created and affirmed in America by the language of statutes that recognize only " foreign " organizations as the sources of terrorist acts. Hate speech against Muslims is not simply tolerated and largely unpunished, but normalized into a valid political position.

A quelques jours des fêtes de fin d’année, et de Noël en particulier, émergent – comme à chaque fois – d’étranges histoires. De ces histoires dans lesquelles les musulmans endossent, volens nolens, le rôle du Grinch et parviennent à ruiner l’esprit de Noël. Le pire, c’est qu’ils ont toujours d’excellentes raisons pour se donner bonne conscience et fermer les yeux sur les coups de canif qu’ils ne cessent de donner ainsi dans le « faire-ensemble » .

The movement of people spatially at an unprecedented scale is a special social phenomenon of the 21st century. Among these people on the move are those who take up residence away from their place of origin—the “diaspora”—who are the focus of this study. This book is an interdisciplinary study on the 21st century demographic reality that led to the development of “diaspora missiology” as a new missiological paradigm, and the need to practice “diaspora missions” as a new mission strategy.

The purpose of this topic is to examine the phenomenon of Islamic call, its entering in American scientific community and Islamic studies. It includes interpretation and correlation of the Islamic terms like da'wah, ijtihad, and jihad; investigation the roots of spreading Muslim da'wah in the USA; defining the conditions of the Islamic call spreading in the USA scientific community; showing main periods of da'wah dissemination in the USA society and the American Islamic Studies. A special consideration is given to the work of the Centre for Muslim-Christian understanding headed by J.Esposito. This paper deals with the problem of forming ties between Muslim and secular scientific community structures too.

This document is a comprehensive resource for individuals and organizations alike.  Laypeople such as concerned citizens, parents, neighbors, and members of religious congregations will find tools here that empower them to challenge Islamophobia in their homes, neighborhoods, and communities.  Educators; political, civic, religious or business community leaders; civic organizations; and any entity looking for guidance to fight bigotry in their ranks, organization, or wider communities can follow actionable items in this guidebook to help them dismantle Islamophobia.

REPORT TEAM

Azka Mahmood, Report Author

Petra Alsoofy, Outreach and Partnerships Manager, ISPU

Lida Azim, Program Manager, America Indivisible

Nina Fernando, Program Director, Shoulder to Shoulder

Erum Ikramullah, Research Project Manager, ISPU

Dr. Catherine Orsborn, Executive Director, Shoulder to Shoulder

Lindsay Schubiner, Momentum Program Director, Western States Center

Meira Neggaz, Executive Director, ISPU

Dalia Mogahed, Director of Research, ISPU

“It is quite evident that most Islamic states, and especially those of the Arab world, suffer from chronic underdevelopment, violence, and intolerance. Furthermore, they have in recent times, experienced civil wars, ethnic cleansings, confessional strife, and bloody dictatorships which practice barbaric physical torture. Women suffer from discriminatory laws of various degrees, with respect to marriage, divorce, and inheritance. Forced marriages are still tolerated, and when it comes to crimes of honour, it is always the (woman) victim that is punished, while the aggressor goes free!
“When we take these factors into consideration, we become aware of the many obstacles and challenges that face Muslims living in the West, such as: How to harmonize Islamic and Western values; how to succeed in education and work; how to re-educate young Muslims with respect to the relations between the sexes; and how to inculcate healthy and sane rules regarding courtship and marriage, that would allow the younger generation to live harmoniously within democratic and open societies.”

A series of focus groups in Canada, the United States and Britain revealed dissatisfaction among Muslims with their religious leaders lack of cultural understanding. Many mosque imams who are brought over from Muslim-majority countries do not have the knowledge to help congregants deal with life in Western societies.

This piece argues that a new epistemological terrain has emerged in the aftermath of the 9/11/2001 attacks. This new terrain is characterized by a silencing discourse of fear, terror and apology. It is established, fostered and supported by a misappropriation of human rights language, the Bush administration's domestic policies and foreign wars, mass media contributions and Muslim apologist literature. The author argues that new ways of thinking about the unthought and the unthinkable are necessary in order to deconstruct this recently emerged epistemological terrain.

This article presents the findings of a national survey on Islam in Australia based on responses of 1034 Muslim Australian citizens and permanent residents. Knowing what Muslim Australians think about Islam in relation to Australian society is essential for a more informed understanding about Islam and Muslims needed to address misinformation, Islamophobia, and extremism. The findings presented in this article include typologies of Muslims; sources of influence concerning Islam; interpretations of the Qur’an; perspectives on ethical, social, and theological issues; issues of concern; social connections and sense of belonging; views on various Muslim-majority countries; and perspectives concerning political Islam, including jihad, caliphate, and shariah. While respondents’ understandings, interpretations, and expressions of Islam overall align with values and principles of equality, human rights, social cohesion, and social justice, a minority were found to understand and interpret I...

This article presents the findings of a national survey on Islam in Australia based on responses of 1034 Muslim Australian citizens and permanent residents. Knowing what Muslim Australians think about Islam in relation to Australian society is essential for a more informed understanding about Islam and Muslims needed to address misinformation, Islamophobia, and extremism. The findings presented in this article include typologies of Muslims; sources of influence concerning Islam; interpretations of the Qur’an; perspectives on ethical, social, and theological issues; issues of concern; social connections and sense of belonging; views on various Muslim-majority countries; and perspectives concerning political Islam, including jihad, caliphate, and shariah. While respondents’ understandings, interpretations, and expressions of Islam overall align with values and principles of equality, human rights, social cohesion, and social justice, a minority were found to understand and interpret I...

The Al-Qaeda terrorist group attacks on the USA on September 11, 2001 and shook the
world. It has stolen the lives of near about three thousand innocents. Such inhumane act was
condemned by all communities irrespective of nay affiliations of religion, nation, cast, color or
class. This tragedy did not end up with the death of its victims but it continues on the lives of
Muslims in both majority and minority areas. Apart from America’s “war on terror” mission on
Iraq and Afghanistan Muslims across the world pushed in to the gallows of hostility and
accelerating Islamophobia in the gloomy shadow of Post 9/11. Especially immigrant generation
of Muslims to the USA and European countries has to pay heavier prize for 9/11. The dreams of
the immigrant Muslim minorities who migrated to America and European countries in search of
Dreams from South Asia and Middle East turned in to nightmare after this event. Whether they
say, ‘I am an American’, “lover of America”, or “I am not a terrorist” these claims do not make
any difference except the signs which they bear. Signs like Muslim names, dress code, topi,
Kurta payjama, hijab/naqab, beard, and coal in their eyes which not only became signifier of
terror but signified the identities of terror and terrorism in the post 9/11 era. The victims of Post
9/11 Islamophobic backlash are not only Muslims but also non-Muslims like Hindus and Sikh
who share common racial and cultural commonalities with Muslims. They became target of
terror and torture of “war on terror”, different phobias, and suspicions. This Post 9/11 condition
was brought in the recent Bollywood discourses especial trend settlers movies like Shoeb
Mansoor’s Khuda Ke Liye (2007)[KKL], Kabir Khan’s New York (2009)[NY], Karan Johar’s My
Name is Khan (2010)[MNIK], and Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012 will be
released soon in 2013)[TRF].

ΑΝΑΔΗΜΟΣΙΕΥΣΗ
First republished on 4th August 2021 here:
https://profmegalommatistextsingreek.wordpress.com/2021/08/04/ούτε-ένας-μουσουλμάνος-δεν-επιτρέπετ/
Ούτε Ένας Μουσουλμάνος δεν επιτρέπεται να παραμείνει σε Ελλάδα ή Ευρώπη: ο Μουσουλμάνος Ανατολιστής καθ. Μεγαλομμάτης εξηγεί γιατί!
Not one Muslim is permissible to stay in Greece or Europe: Prof. Megalommatis, a Muslim Orientalist, explains how!

Extensive presentation (in Greek) and full republication (in English) of my articles
1. Integration of Muslims means Disintegration of Europe
https://www.academia.edu/24267890/Integration_of_Muslims_means_Disintegration_of_Europe_-_by_Prof._Muhammad_Shamsaddin_Megalommatis
and
2. Reasons making Muslim Integration in Europe Impossible
https://www.academia.edu/24268557/Reasons_making_Muslim_Integration_in_Europe_Impossible_by_Prof_Muhammad_Shamsaddin_Megalommatis
The author expands in length, presenting in Greek all the main arguments that I made clear in those articles.

A Muslim presence is increasingly visible in Canada, where the cityscapes are dotted with the distinctive architecture of the occasional masjid, jamatkhana, and imambara. Traditional male Muslim garments may be spotted only in certain areas, but the headscarves worn by numbers of Muslim women are to be seen in city centre streets, shops, offices, and parks. Novels are capturing the experience of fictional Muslim communities. However, apart from crisis coverage, Canadian news shies away from including images of Islam in its daily reporting.

Voluntary associations in Muslim polities have long provided essential services to the public. They may not conceptualize their own existence in the terms of contemporary liberal ideas of civil society, but they function like their counterparts in Western countries. A number of them operate transnationally. The broad-ranging interactions between Muslim civil society associations with Western societies have led to major confrontations at one end and close collaboration at the other. Historical senses of Muslim identity as well as the varying conceptualizations of what constitute the local and the global are shaping the relationships of individual Muslim organizations with other institutions.

"Publisher: Wired.co.uk
Author: Liat Clark
Date: Nov. 30, 2012
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-11/30/anti-muslim-influence-on-us-media

Racism, Racism against Muslims, Anti-Islam, Anti-Islam in the US, Racism in the US, Anti-Muslim Racism, Anti-Muslim Bigotry, Islamophobia, Media Bias Against Islam"

"A Postcolonial People" is a lively, critical survey of contemporary South Asian Britain that fills a conspicuous gap in the literature. This specially commissioned book combines conceptually innovative analysis with empirically rich studies to map out the diversity of the British Asian way of life. The migration and settlement of South Asians in large numbers in Britain is examined in the context of the postcolonial condition, in which boundaries between the West and Rest, centre and periphery, home and abroad are increasingly blurred. The contributors provide both fresh insights and vital information on the Asian British experience in its socio-economic, historical and cultural dimensions. The topics covered include: identity, the transformation of urban space, policing, healthcare, electoral politics, music, British Asian theatre and cinema.

The Tablighi Jama'at (TJ) is widely regarded as the largest grassroots Islamic revival movement in the world, but it remains significantly under-researched. This paper, based on sustained ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2013 and 2015, provides a comprehensive overview of the movement's organisational structures and loci of authority in Britain. It describes how different levels of the movement interact, from the local and regional to the national and international, to constitute a truly glocal movement. TJ's European headquarters, located in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, is identified as a centralised hub that for several decades has coordinated the movement's activities in the West through the devoted leadership of Hafiz Muhammad Patel (1926-2016) and ongoing contact with the global spiritual centre in Nizamuddin, New Delhi. TJ's simultaneous links with hundreds of mosques across the country, largely-though not exclusively-of Deobandi orientation, are also described. The functioning of its regional centres of operation in Birmingham, Blackburn, Glasgow, Leicester and London is elaborated with reference to key weekly meetings convened on-site and the "routing" of numerous TJ groups to various British mosques each weekend. Although TJ's leadership has recently become embroiled in schism, the paper argues for the successful establishment of a robust institutional infrastructure in Britain which has facilitated the movement's transmission to a generation of British-born activists.

This essay examines how the Aga Khan engages discursively with the public sphere. In addressing non-Muslim audiences, he speaks from a Muslim perspective but expresses himself in a discourse that is meant to appeal to broad humanistic interests. Jurgen Habermas notes the contemporary emergence of "post-secular society" in which the Western Self has become a complex conglomeration of secular and religious, indigenous and immigrant. The Aga Khan's discourse appears to be giving particular nuances to this concept. The apparent success of his model of inter-civilizational communication is significant given the often troubled relationship between Western and Muslim societies.

An opinion piece that examines the issue of parental consent in relation to referrals to the UK's counter-terrorism intervention policy, Channel, in schools, which gained statutory status in July 2015 under the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015.

The language of trauma has been used by many to explain what happens to individuals and to the collectivities to which they belong. Some of these traumatic experiences stem from interpersonal violence, such as sexual and physical abuse or domestic violence. Others may stem from witnessing interpersonal violence and victimisation, such as witnessing or being a victim of a serious accident, war, a terror attack, or experiencing the loss of a loved one. Regardless of its cause, trauma, whether individualistic or collective, arises from the experience of pain and suffering post ‘an extraordinary event’ so disruptive that it triggers an emotional response and public attention. This chapter will situate the experiences of trauma felt by the surviving Muslim women victims of the Christchurch terror attack that occurred on March 15, 2019, within the scope of collective trauma theory. We do this by examining two types of collective trauma unique to the Christchurch experience: collective tra...

This article presents the findings of a national survey on Islam in Australia based on responses of 1034 Muslim Australian citizens and permanent residents. Knowing what Muslim Australians think about Islam in relation to Australian society is essential for a more informed understanding about Islam and Muslims needed to address misinformation, Islamophobia, and extremism. The findings presented in this article include typologies of Muslims; sources of influence concerning Islam; interpretations of the Qur’an; perspectives on ethical, social, and theological issues; issues of concern; social connections and sense of belonging; views on various Muslim-majority countries; and perspectives concerning political Islam, including jihad, caliphate, and shariah. While respondents’ understandings, interpretations, and expressions of Islam overall align with values and principles of equality, human rights, social cohesion, and social justice, a minority were found to understand and interpret I...

Since the early 2000s, Turkish Muslim leaders in Europe have redefined and reconstructed their discourse and activities. Turkish immigrant organizations’ transformation is marked by traditional Islamic organizations’ growing interest in non-religious services, and the establishment of new-generation conservative organizations that identify themselves as business, political, and women’s organizations. These recent changes have triggered a process of collaboration, emulation, and rapprochement among Turkish immigrant organizations in Europe. To account for the changing dynamics within the Turkish immigrant organizational landscape in Europe, this chapter examines how Turkish immigrants’ identity, claims, and social mobility have changed following their shift from temporary to permanent settlement. This study's findings draw from in-depth interviews conducted with first-, second-, and third-generation Turkish immigrant organization leaders in Ankara, Berlin, Cologne, Paris, and Strasbourg in 2013.

This essay will discuss the representation of Muslims in the media cast within an Islamophobic frame of reference, it will be divided into four main sections; it will first represent a brief linguistic introductory with regards to the term Islamophobia. It will then go on to describe the significance of the media on the portrayal of Muslims and Islam. It will provide some academic analysis of the Western media with relation to 'the war on terror' as well as touching upon the role of Salmaan Rushdi‟s Satanic Verses in shaping a new Islamophobic discourse.

... Caliph E. Muhammad, based in Baltimore, MD. ... Munir describes this transformation as "an African American pilgrimage toward coherence".23 Earlier to that, by the late 1950s, the Nation of Islam was drawing widespread media attention as a result of its rapid growth, and the ...