Organized by
- Centre for European Islamic Thought, University of Copenhagen
- EurIslam network, PRISME, University of Strasbourg
Place: Alexandersalen, Bispetorvet 1-3, København K.
The international conference will focus on the following overlapping and interlocking dimensions:
1. The processes and realities of Muslim participation in local and national politics: Voting patterns and representation in local and national assemblies; the place of Islam as an identifying factor – do candidates highlight or marginalize their ‘Muslimness’ (and what is ‘Muslim’ in this context?); the relationship between Muslim and ethnic identities in the political processes.
2. Internal Muslim debates about political participation in Europe: Attitudes of Muslims to the democratic processes; views for and against political participation in non-Muslim society; who can/should represent Muslims, or are there other priorities?
3. Public discourses about Muslim participation; political participation as a method or consequence of integration; state policies regarding Muslim political participation; relationship between participation and citizenship; is Muslim participation welcomed or contingent on privatizing the faith?
Programme outline
6-8 October 2010
Plenary lectures
- 1st Plenary: Tufyal Choudhury, Durham Law School, Senior Policy Advisor, Open Society Institute. At Home in Europe Project: Muslims in EU Cities
- 2nd Plenary: Prof. Aminah McCloud, DePaul University, Chicago. Who speaks for Islam and how do they speak?
- 3rd Plenary: Dr Franck Fregosi, PRISME, University of Strasbourg. Forms of collective mobilization of Muslims in France and in contemporary Europe: new issues and new types of involvement.
- 4th Plenary: Prof. Thijl Sunier, VU Amsterdam. Beyond the domestication of Islam in Europe
Parallel paper session 1
Group A – Chair: Anne-Laure Zwilling
- Alexander Castilla (Independent researcher). Muslims in Catalonia: Misunderstandings, reciprocity and the search for group cohesion
- Maria Bombardieri (Milan). The dawning of Muslim political participation in Italy
- Luis Bernardo (Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal). The political accommodation of Islam in Ireland and Portugal: Institutional configurations and religious diversity
Group B – Chair: Jörn Thielmann
- Mustafa Osman Turan (Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey). Political interactions between immigrant organizations and “liberal” states in Europe
- Niels Valdemar Vinding (CEIT, University of Copenhagen, Denmark). The necessity of Muslim political participation
Group C – Chair: Riem Spielhaus
- Mohammad Mesbahi and M.Samiei (University of Surrey and Islamic College, UK). A case study of MINAB in the UK
- Deniz Kosulu (Political Science, Institut d’Etudes politiques d’Aix-en-Provence, France). The Alevi quest in Europe: From a religious and cultural recognition to the entry into the political area
Parallel paper session 2
Group A – Chair: Franck Fregosi
- Justin Gest (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK). Interrogating alienation: Classical social theory in the global era
- Marion Maddox (Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, Macquarie University, NSW, Australia). Muslim political participation: A comparative perspective
- Sean McLoughlin (Department of Theology & Religious Studies, University of Leeds, UK). Muslims, multiculturalism and the UK State after ‘7/7’
Group B – Chair: Thijl Sunier
- Ekrem Eddy Güzeldere (European Stability Initiative). German elections 2009 and the Turkish/Muslim community
- Jörn Thielmann (Erlangen Centre for Islam and Law in Europe EZIRE, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany). Engaging the state: The Islamic community Milî Görus and the German politics
- Salima Bouyarden (France). The Muslim vote in France and the UK: origins and new patterns
Group C – Chair: Egdunas Racius
- Iben Helquist (Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, RUC, Denmark). Muslim Interest Groups in Denmark: Credible and reliable partners of the public administration?
- George Michalakopoulos and Dr Christina Melliou (Department of Translation and Interpretation, Ionian University, Greece). Is political participation of Muslim communities an end in itself, or is it a means to an end? The case of the Muslim community in Thrace
- Sheila B. Lalwani (Harvard University, USA). Journalism, policy, women’s issues, Islam, diversity
Parallel paper session 3
Group A – Chair: Sean McCloughlin
- Stéphane Lathion (GRIS, l’Université de Fribourg, Switzerland). Muslims in Switzerland: What has the minaret initiative changed for the Muslim associative leader?
- Ivan Ureta-Vaquero (University of Lugano, Switzerland). Public discourse and the raising of Islamophobia with a focus on Switzerland: Limiting political organization
Group B – Chair: Samim Akgönûl
- Egdunas Racius (Vilnius University, Lithuania). Lithuanian Muslim attitudes toward participation in democratic political process
- Ajala Imène (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland). The Muslim vote and Muslim lobby in France: Myths and realities
- Marco Giugni and Noémi Michel (University of Geneva, Switzerland). Muslims in Switzerland: Associational involvement, political attitudes and social characteristics
Group C – Chair: Azhar Ibrahim
- Rabih Barakat (University of Strasbourg). Political participation as a method of integration Muslims religious self-governance as a means of effective political participation
- Agata S. Nalborczyk (University of Warsaw, Poland). The political participation of Polish Muslim Tatars – the result of or the reason for integration? From wars with Teutonic knights to the Danish cartoons affair
- Riem Spielhaus (CEIT, University of Copenhagen, Denmark). From access to engagement – an empirical approach to political participation among Muslims in Berlin
Parallel papers session 4
Group A – Chair: Maria Bombardieri
- Fatima Zibouh (Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies at ULG, Belgium). The Muslims’ political participation in Belgium
- Göran Larsson and Jonathan Bäckelie (University of Gothenburg, Sweden). Young Muslims and political participation in Sweden
- Maike Didero (Aachen University, Germany). Political participation of Muslim immigrants in Germany: a case of integration or fragmentation? The BFF in Bonn as an example
Group B – Chair: Jørgen S. Nielsen
- Garbi Schmidt (Institute for Social Science Research, Copenhagen, Denmark). ”Grounded” politics: The powerfulness of Islam in local spaces
- Timothy Peace (European University Institute, Florence, Italy). Muslim political participation in Britain: the case of Respect
Group C – Chair: Stefano Allievi
- Z. Fareen Parvez (Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, USA). Representing “Islam of the Banlieues”: The politics and antipolitics of Muslims in France
- Nadia Jeldtoft (CEIT, University of Copenhagen, Denmark). Representativeness and Muslim Minority Identities: Islam in the Everyday Lives of Muslims in Europe
- Zeynep Hale Öner-Keifer (Dogus University, Istanbul, Turkey). 'Active participation' for women through the lens of a triparty analysis: Students, politicians and academicians view