
The issue of accommodation of religious
minorities within the structure of nation-states has been a subject of intense discussions among scholars and policy makers across the world since the late 20th century. Most societies and nation- states in the world are either experiencing strains in accommodating the social, economic and political concerns of minority communities or facing difficulties in managing majority-minority relationship.
More than any other community, it is the integration of minority Muslim communities that has been the subject of global debates and deliberations, particularly in the western hemisphere.
The emergence of political radicalism within some sections of Muslim communities in the West and a series of terrorist attacks has further compounded this problem. These developments have reinforced the pervasive thinking among a large section of non-Muslim host societies that Islam suffers from structural deficiencies for a meaningful integration in the host societies.
The edited volume is a collection of 14 scholarly articles including introduction, which deals with the problem of accommodation of Muslim minority communities in the European and Indian contexts. It interrogates the notion of modernity, Muslim modernity, secularism, pluralism and multiculturalism in both European. and Indian settings. Linkages of religion, ethnicity and politics for the integration of Muslim minorities within the structure of nation-state are also explored in a cross-cultural comparative framework.
About the Book
The issue of accommodation of religious minorities within the structure of nation-states has been a subject of intense discussions among scholars and policy makers across the world since the late 20th century. Most societies and nation-states in the world are either experiencing strains in accommodating the social, economic and political concerns of minority communities or facing difficulties in managing majority-minority relationship.
More than any other community, it is the integration of minority Muslim communities that has been the subject of global debates and deliberations, particularly in the western hemisphere. The emergence of political radicalism within some sections of Muslim communities in the West and a series of terrorist attacks has further compounded this problem. These developments have reinforced the pervasive thinking among a large section of non- Muslim host societies that Islam suffers from structural deficiencies for a meaningful integration in the host societies.
The edited volume is a collection of 14 scholarly articles including introduction, which deals with the problem of accommodation of Muslim minority communities in the European and Indian contexts. It interrogates the notion of modernity, Muslim modernity, secularism, pluralism and multiculturalism in both European and Indian settings. Linkages of religion, ethnicity and politics for the integration of Muslim minorities within the structure of nation-state are also explored in a cross-cultural comparative framework.
About the Editors
Anwar Alam teaches at the Department of International Relations, Zirve University, Gaziantep (Turkey). Earlier he was associated with Aligarh Muslim University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi (India). Among others, he has been a recipient of the Alexander Von Humboldt Fellowship (Germany).
Konrad Pędziwiatr teaches at the Department of European Studies, Cracow University of Economics (Poland). He has been researching various aspects of Islam and migrations in Europe, Middle-East and North Africa in close collaboration with the Södertörn University (Sweden), Tischner European University and University of Warsaw (Poland).
Contents
About the Book
About the Editors Contributors
Introduction
Accommodating Muslim Minorities: Political Experiences of Europe and India Anwar Alam and Konrad Pędziwiatr
Part I: Nation-States and Religious Minorities: General Overview
Minority Matters: Perspectives from the
Indian Ocean
Bruce B. Lawrence
State and Religious Minorities in
India and Europe: The Rupture between Vision and Reality
T.K. Oommen
Part II: Modernity, Secularism and Muslim Minorities
Modernity, Nation-State and Islamic
Identity Politics
Michael Dusche
Beyond the East-West Binary:
Pluralist Secularism and the Muslim Problem in India and the Netherlands Markha Valenta
Exploring Muslim Modernities: Public Presence of Mosques in Delhi and London
Hilal Ahmed
Religion and the Constitutional Order in the Orbit of the European Union: De- Constructing State Neutrality in Germany and Turkey Kyriaki Topidi
Part III: Negotiating Citizenships
Citizenship and Affirmation of Group Difference: Constitutional Mode of Negotiating Religious Identities in India Kumar Suresh
New Muslim Brokers in European Cities and Politics of Muslim Citizenship
Konrad Pędziwiatr
Muslims and Naturalization Process in France
Anne Fornerod
Protecting Muslim Minorities in the Work Place: Europe and India
Katayoun Alidadi
Part IV: Muslims, Multiculturalism and Politics of Islam
Islamic Responses to Multiculturalism: An Analysis of Qur’anic Citations Husain Qutbuddin
Muslim Responses to Multiculturalism in India and Europe Anwar Alam
Role of Muslim Class Relations in the Politics of Islam in France and India Z. Fareen Parvez
Index