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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000010336752 | D1056.2.M87 F48 2005 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Over ten million Muslims live in Western Europe. Since the early 1990s, and especially after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, vexing policy questions have emerged about the religious rights of native-born and immigrant Muslims. Britain has struggled over whether to give state funding to private Islamic schools. France has been convulsed over Muslim teenagers wearing the hijab in public schools. Germany has debated whether to grant 'public-corporation' status to Muslims. And each state is searching for policies to ensure the successful incorporation of practicing Muslims into liberal democratic society. This 2004 book analyzes state accommodation of Muslims' religious practices in Britain, France, and Germany, first examining three major theories: resource mobilization, political-opportunity structure, and ideology. It then proposes an additional explanation, arguing that each nation's approach to Muslims follows from its historically based church-state institutions.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
In a timely study, given the massive influx of Muslims into Britain, France, and Germany and its disorienting impact on societies traditionally dominated by Christian culture, Fetzer and Soper compare the position of Islam and Muslims. Muslims--Pakistanis in Britain, North Africans in France, and Turks in Germany--were originally imported as low-wage workers, but as they settled with their families they posed a challenge to public authorities with respect to social, economic, and educational policies and, above all, the status of Islam in relation to that of other religions. The authors test theories of resource mobilization, opportunity structures, and ideology. Although freedom of religion exists in all three countries, there are important and historically conditioned differences, at least in the formal sense: Britain has an established state church, France is marked by separation of church and state, and Germany accords official legitimation to three religions. In their analysis of the place of Islam, the authors touch on related issues such as immigration, citizenship, welfare, the construction of mosques, and the tension between integration and cultural pluralism. They also deal with the question of how the Muslims' religious values accord or conflict with the national identities, republican orientations, and ethnoracial attitudes of their host countries. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. W. Safran University of Colorado at Boulder
Table of Contents
| List of figures and tables |
| Preface |
| 1 Explaining the accommodation of Muslim religious practices in Western Europe |
| 2 Britain: establishment religion and Islamic schools |
| 3 France: Laicite and the hijab |
| 4 Germany: multiple establishment and public corporation status |
| 5 Public attitudes toward state accommodation of Muslims' religious practices |
| 6 Integration and Muslim practice |
| Appendix |
| Glossary |
| Bibliography |
| Index |
