Former Muslims in Europe

Former Muslims in Europe PDF Author: Maria Vliek
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000409139
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Within contemporary Western European academic, media, and socio-political spheres, Muslims are predominantly seen through the lens of increased religiosity. This religiosity is often seen as problematic, especially in the context of securitised discourses of Islamist terrorism. Yet, there are clear indications that a growing number of people who grew up in Muslim families no longer subscribe to Islam or call themselves religious at all. Drawing on fieldwork in the UK and the Netherlands, this study examines the experiences of people moving out of Islam. It rigorously questions the antagonistic nature of the debate between ‘the religious’ and ‘the secular’, or who is in and who is out, and argues for recognition of the ambiguity that most of us live in. Revealing many complex forms of moving out, this study adds much-needed nuance to understandings of secularity and Muslim identities in Europe.

Former Muslims in Europe

Former Muslims in Europe PDF Author: Maria Vliek
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000409139
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Within contemporary Western European academic, media, and socio-political spheres, Muslims are predominantly seen through the lens of increased religiosity. This religiosity is often seen as problematic, especially in the context of securitised discourses of Islamist terrorism. Yet, there are clear indications that a growing number of people who grew up in Muslim families no longer subscribe to Islam or call themselves religious at all. Drawing on fieldwork in the UK and the Netherlands, this study examines the experiences of people moving out of Islam. It rigorously questions the antagonistic nature of the debate between ‘the religious’ and ‘the secular’, or who is in and who is out, and argues for recognition of the ambiguity that most of us live in. Revealing many complex forms of moving out, this study adds much-needed nuance to understandings of secularity and Muslim identities in Europe.

Leaving Islam, Ex-Muslims and Zemiology

Leaving Islam, Ex-Muslims and Zemiology PDF Author: Weronika Lenartowicz
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003832636
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Cases of ex-Muslims in Europe being punished by their former fellow Muslims constitute an unacceptable practice from the standpoint of democratic societies in which human rights are respected and individuals have the freedom to choose their religion, or none at all. Ex-Muslims’ fear of punishment by their former community should prompt an open, candid, and measured discussion of the issue. Leaving Islam, Ex-Muslims and Zemiology presents the reasons for and consequences of consciously leaving Islam, based on interviews with 80 ex-Muslims currently living in Germany and Sweden. In their view, many of the practices and beliefs of Islam are harmful and unfair. Many parts of the Islamic world regard apostasy as treason or a crime. As a result, emphasis in the book is shifted from “crime” to “harm” and a thesis is put forward concerning the “decriminalization” of apostasy from the perspective of zemiology. The book highlights how a broader shift of interest in the democratic structures of Europe could allow ex-Muslims to join the discussion on the guaranteed right to religious liberties and freedom of speech in the context of the apostasy law in Islam. This should happen without fear for their own security and without facing potential suppression or social exclusion. It will appeal to scholars with interest in Islam and the conflict between religious values and an individual’s aspirations and needs.

Why We Left Islam

Why We Left Islam PDF Author: Susan Crimp
Publisher: WND Books
ISBN: 0979267102
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
Records the testimonies of former Muslims who have left the Islamic faith, recording their reasons for leaving the religion and the consequences that they have faced as a result.

Leaving Islam

Leaving Islam PDF Author: Ibn Warraq
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615921605
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 471

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Book Description
A renowned scholar of Islamic studies interviews ex-Muslims, who feel it is their duty to speak up against their former faith to tell the truth about the fastest growing religion in the world.

Islam and Muslims in Europe

Islam and Muslims in Europe PDF Author: Yehuda Cohen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781536134735
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
The main subject of this book concerns the Muslim immigrants in Europe. It includes the entire history of Islam vis-a-vis Europe since the 7th century, prescribing useful do's and don'ts for current European policymakers.Europeans have developed negative predispositions toward Muslims, sometimes even distinctly perceiving them as foes. The British greatly value the recollection of their glorious erstwhile empire, thus, when it broke-up, they enabled former subjects of the Crown to settle in the UK, as if to build a miniature duplicate of their empire within Britain's borders. Hence, the British did not perceive former colonies' Muslim immigrants as foes, unlike continental Europeans, but as British subjects.Generally, Europeans intend to fill the individual Muslim immigrant's needs as a citizen, according to the liberal approach. The expectation, however, is that Muslims, as a group, would become culturally integrated within the absorbing society. That approach bewilders the European Muslims. Many Muslim immigrants experience discrimination in Europe. The continental European approach toward Muslims, stemming from prejudice and fear, made some immigrants aggressive.The main divergence between European society and Muslim immigrants is due, foremost, to certain collective memories of the native Europeans. That insight is elucidated by comparing European and American societies. The American, found in a country built by immigrants tends to adapt to a variety of new immigrants, Muslims included. Conversely, European society is fundamentally incapable of truly incorporating immigrant culture and practices, which it perceives as a threat, especially concerning Islam.It is, therefore, the Europeans who hold the key to alter the destructive dynamics, not the Muslims.Muslims and Arabs within their countries suffer the frustration of remembering their Golden Age when the Europeans were deeply mired in the Middle Ages. Nowadays, the Arabs and Muslims have not been able to lift themselves back to their former state. That frustration may be compared to the German frustration in the 1920s being split up into distinct German states - the consequence of which was the mass destruction of the European Jewish population. The splitting of the Germans, while suffering from lack of one uniting national myth, had brought on the adoption of a German race theory - which Adolf Hitler offered to the Germans - and had led to the Holocaust. Frustration may turn people rather aggressive, and Iran or some Arabs (like the members of ISIS) aided by Muslims in Europe might end up using weapons of mass destruction against Europe. The case of ISIS is therefore elaborated upon, in detail, in this book. The successful integration of the Muslims in Europe may help somewhat; indeed, this book aims to promote such an accomplishment.The French approach is uniquely rather rigid towards Muslim immigrants, as a group and individually. Hence, there is no mental confusion among Muslims there and a significant portion of the Muslims in France see themselves as French - better integrated than other Muslims in Europe.The best policy the Continental Europeans may adopt is the French approach.

The Apostates

The Apostates PDF Author: Simon Cottee
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 1849044694
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
A candid appraisal of the challenges and consequences of leaving Islam

Europe's Balkan Muslims

Europe's Balkan Muslims PDF Author: Nathalie Clayer
Publisher: Hurst & Company
ISBN: 9781849046596
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
There are roughly eight million Muslims in south-east Europe, among them Albanians, Bosniaks, Turks and Roma -- descendants of converts or settlers in the Ottoman period. This new history of the social, political and religious transformations that this population experienced in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries -- a period marked by the collapse of the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires and by the creation of the modern Balkan states -- will shed new light on the European Muslim experience. Southeast Europe's Muslims have experienced a slow and complex crystallisation of their respective national identities, which accelerated after 1945 as a result of the authoritarian modernisation of communist regimes and, in the late twentieth century, ended in nationalist mobilisations that precipitated the independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo during the break-up of Milosevic's Yugoslavia. At a religious level, these populations have re--mained connected to the institutions established by the Ottoman Empire, as well as to various educational, intellectual and Sufi (mystic) networks. With the fall of communism, new transnational networks appeared, especially neo-Salafist and neo-Sufi ones, although Europe's Balkan Muslims have not escaped the wider processes of secularisation.

Christian Martyrs Under Islam

Christian Martyrs Under Islam PDF Author: Christian C. Sahner
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069120313X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
A look at the developing conflicts in Christian-Muslim relations during late antiquity and the early Islamic era How did the medieval Middle East transform from a majority-Christian world to a majority-Muslim world, and what role did violence play in this process? Christian Martyrs under Islam explains how Christians across the early Islamic caliphate slowly converted to the faith of the Arab conquerors and how small groups of individuals rejected this faith through dramatic acts of resistance, including apostasy and blasphemy. Using previously untapped sources in a range of Middle Eastern languages, Christian Sahner introduces an unknown group of martyrs who were executed at the hands of Muslim officials between the seventh and ninth centuries CE. Found in places as diverse as Syria, Spain, Egypt, and Armenia, they include an alleged descendant of Muhammad who converted to Christianity, high-ranking Christian secretaries of the Muslim state who viciously insulted the Prophet, and the children of mixed marriages between Muslims and Christians. Sahner argues that Christians never experienced systematic persecution under the early caliphs, and indeed, they remained the largest portion of the population in the greater Middle East for centuries after the Arab conquest. Still, episodes of ferocious violence contributed to the spread of Islam within Christian societies, and memories of this bloodshed played a key role in shaping Christian identity in the new Islamic empire. Christian Martyrs under Islam examines how violence against Christians ended the age of porous religious boundaries and laid the foundations for more antagonistic Muslim-Christian relations in the centuries to come.

Journey into Europe

Journey into Europe PDF Author: Akbar Ahmed
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815727593
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 595

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Book Description
An unprecedented, richly, detailed, and clear-eyed exploration of Islam in European history and civilization Tensions over Islam were escalating in Europe even before 9/11. Since then, repeated episodes of terrorism together with the refugee crisis have dramatically increased the divide between the majority population and Muslim communities, pushing the debate well beyond concerns over language and female dress. Meanwhile, the parallel rise of right-wing, nationalist political parties throughout the continent, often espousing anti-Muslim rhetoric, has shaken the foundation of the European Union to its very core. Many Europeans see Islam as an alien, even barbaric force that threatens to overwhelm them and their societies. Muslims, by contrast, struggle to find a place in Europe in the face of increasing intolerance. In tandem, anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination cause many on the continent to feel unwelcome in their European homes. Akbar Ahmed, an internationally renowned Islamic scholar, traveled across Europe over the course of four years with his team of researchers and interviewed Muslims and non-Muslims from all walks of life to investigate questions of Islam, immigration, and identity. They spoke with some of Europe’s most prominent figures, including presidents and prime ministers, archbishops, chief rabbis, grand muftis, heads of right-wing parties, and everyday Europeans from a variety of backgrounds. Their findings reveal a story of the place of Islam in European history and civilization that is more interwoven and complex than the reader might imagine, while exposing both the misunderstandings and the opportunities for Europe and its Muslim communities to improve their relationship. Along with an analysis of what has gone wrong and why, this urgent study, the fourth in a quartet examining relations between the West and the Muslim world, features recommendations for promoting integration and pluralism in the twenty-first century.

Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe

Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe PDF Author: Emily Greble
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197538800
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
Drawing upon Muslim Europe's own voices, institutions, and experiences, this compelling work reframes the debates on European secularism, the historic role of Shari'a law in diverse European states, Muslims and Nazis, Muslims and Communists, and the contributions of Muslims to Europe today.