Abstract Using an intersectional approach, this article explores the phenomenon of religion or belief harassment and hate incidents at universities in the United Kingdom. Drawing on a survey of 612 students conducted at a large, modern university in England, the article reveals students’ attitudes to, direct experiences of, and experiences of witnessing, religion-related hate crime or incidents. While most students surveyed had not experienced a religion-related hate incident, or wider unfair treatment related to religion or belief, Muslims, Black and minority ethnic and LGBTQI + students were over-represented among those who had. The article argues that these findings reflect power differences among students and in wider UK society, and the concepts of Islamophobia or anti-Muslim hate, and intersectionality, help explain such dynamics.
Abstract This study explores how Muslim communities in Granada province, Spain, maintain their faith through Sufi traditions. Sufism is a spiritual path in Islam that focuses on love, inner peace and remembering God through practices such as group chanting and meditation. By spending time with two Sufi groups (the Jerrahi and Qadiri orders), the researcher analysed how religious knowledge is passed down, shared and adapted to fit modern life. This study provides insights into how members of these Sufi communities do not simply copy old traditions; rather, they adapt and reshape them to match their lives, cultural contexts, and personal spiritual journeys. Granada province’s rich Islamic history plays a significant role in how these communities view themselves and their faith today. This work helps us understand how religion remains meaningful in changing times and offers insights into how faith, identity and tradition continue to evolve in a global, multicultural world.
Abstract This article examines how digital platforms are reshaping religious communication and authority in Kosovo. Drawing on mediatization theory, social media logic, and algorithmic culture, it asks how religious authority is negotiated in a media environment characterized by constitutional secularism and restrictions on direct religious ownership of broadcast media. The study employs qualitative content analysis of television broadcasts, social media content, and selected media texts, focusing on prominent examples of religious communication across mainstream media and digital platforms. The findings show that religious actors increasingly rely on commercial broadcasters, social media platforms, and independent digital channels to reach audiences. Consequently, religious authority is exercised not only through institutional credentials but also through media visibility, audience engagement, and platform dynamics. The Kosovo case contributes to broader debates on digital religion by demonstrating how platformized communication reshapes the production, circulation, and legitimization of religious discourse.
Abstract This article examines how the viral video Happy British Muslims functions as a site of affective, religious, and political negotiation of Muslim identity in contemporary Western societies. Based on a thematic analysis of over 300 YouTube comments, the study identifies emotional and discursive responses, including praise, religious critique, emotional resistance, identity claims, media skepticism, and gendered anxieties. While some viewers interpret the video as a joyful counter-narrative to Islamophobia, others view it as a violation of Islamic ethics, particularly regarding music, dancing, and female modesty. Drawing on classical Islamic philosophy, especially Ibn Rushd’s concept of saʿada, and contemporary sociological theory, including Bourdieu’s habitus and Bauman’s liquid modernity, the article argues that joy operates not merely as an emotion but as a socially situated and morally regulated act. In digital public space, Muslim happiness emerges as a form of affective resistance and ethical scrutiny, revealing struggles over visibility and legitimacy.
Abstract This article examines how Dutch-speaking European producers of Salafi-jihadist discourse interpret the Qur’anic verse ‘Persecution is worse than killing’ (Q 2 [ al-Baqara ]: 191) and mobilise it within the Islamic exegetical tradition, assessing how these readings relate to interpretive trajectories. It argues that these actors privilege classical authorities including al-Tabari and Ibn Kathir while extending their interpretations to secular democratic contexts. Within this framework, fitna is equated with shirk and applied to voting and political participation, thereby legitimising disengagement from democratic systems and excluding dissenting Muslims. Employing a historical-comparative methodology informed by Andrew Rippin’s periodisation of tafsir , the article analyses interpretations of Q2: 191 across formative, classical, and modern exegetical phases. The diachronic analysis highlights the diversity and contextuality of the exegetical tradition, contrasting with the decontextualised readings advanced by them. The study concludes that these interpretations constitute a contemporary Salafi-jihadist reappropriation of the exegetical tradition in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Abstract This article explores the Islamic theoretical development within environmental philosophy and its manifestation in environmental action through the religious sources of the German environmental organisation Hima. Hima fills a spiritual gap by combining a German Muslim identity with environmentalism. This article provides an example of how transnational currents are bound together in questions of religion, environmentalism and identity. This is beneficial for understanding the connections between religion and nature in practical eco-Islamic action. Research on Hima may shed light on how religious theories move from text to territory and from theology to lived religion. The article presents Hima, eco-Islam and the German context, followed by a discussion on transnationalism. It uses theories from Levitt, Vásques and Knott, and Vásques and DeWind, and presents the religious sources used by Hima alongside the context of New Social Movements as presented by Hancock.
Abstract This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews conducted with members of the Union of Albanian Muslims in Italy ( UAMI ) to examine the identity reconfiguration processes of Albanian Muslim migrants to Italy since the late 1990s. After the fall of Albania’s Communist regime, Albanian Muslims were forced to renegotiate their identity in relation to national culture and its secular and religious legacies in a new context. The analysis illustrates how being both migrants and minorities in Italy shaped processes of identification and strategies adopted by UAMI members to articulate a specifically Albanian Muslim presence. As a space for cultural and religious mediation, the UAMI constructs a sense of belonging based on shared religious imaginaries and national specificity within a field already structured by non-Albanian Islamic organisations. The article underscores the role of religious organisations in enabling collective identification in which cultic and cultural factors intertwine in complex ways in diasporic and minority contexts.
Abstract Islamophobic narratives in Hungary are relatively recent phenomena, emerging prominently after the 2015 ‘migration crisis’ when the illiberal, populist, national-conservative government launched a anti-immigration campaign that fuelled anti-Muslim rhetoric. This article examines how anti-migration narratives intersected with representations of Islam during the 2015 migration crisis and evolved in post-migration crisis Hungary (2019–2024). It explores how the figure of the illegal (Muslim) migrant continued to influence Hungarian political rhetoric even as the primary enemy shifted to conservative gender-critic ‘gender ideology’. By analysing the evolution of these narratives, we also aim to compare Eastern (Hungarian) and Western manifestations of Islamophobic populism. Using thematic analysis, we show that Islamophobic populism in Hungary shares similarities with its Western counterpart, however, a key difference is that the former views liberal democratic values – labelled as ‘liberal’ or ‘leftist liberal’ – as threats that undermine Christian Europe by facilitating Islamisation and promoting a gender ideology.
Abstract In this article, we critique the English High Court’s decision in R (On the Application of TTT ) v Michaela Community School , where a school’s ban on ritual prayers during school hours was upheld. Subjecting the case to a close and critical analysis, we contend that the reasoning and rhetoric in this case reflect enduring racialised conceptions of Islam and Muslim identity and resurrect dismissive (post)colonial juridical approaches to Islamic jurisprudence. Complicating the court’s invocations of the principle of secularism to justify the circumscription of religion freedom, and highlighting secularism’s deeply Christian roots, we critically examine the role that selective applications of militant forms of secularism play in underscoring the un-belonging of Islam and Muslims. Finally, we end by warning that this decision sets a troubling precedent for the religious rights and very sense of belonging of British Muslims, especially the younger generations that could have harmful and far-reaching consequences.
Abstract The present research, based on semi-structured interviews with individuals working in the Lithuanian asylum system, is devoted to uncovering to what extent cultural ignorance and Orientalism/ Muslimophobia may have a role in the practical workings of the asylum system in Lithuania. The research reveals that, although some of the interviewees recycle orientalising tropes about intolerant and violent Muslim majority states and their societies, especially when it comes to LGBTIQ + persons, most realise the scope of cultural diversity among and within Muslim societies. The interviewees generally do not seem to question the sexual orientation of those claiming to be LGBTIQ + and find it ‘normal’ that there are LGBTIQ + persons among people of Muslim background. The opinions of the interviewees contrast with the decisions and reasons for them made by state institutions, foremost the Department of Migration.
Abstract In many Western states, Muslims are more likely than the general public to doubt certain scientific theories, notably human evolution. The influence of Islamic knowledge has often been posited as the explanation. Yet those who transmit Islamic knowledge – Islamic scholars ( ‘ulama ) – have been badly neglected by sociologists. This article analyses the views of British Muslim religious leaders about science, drawing on 40 interviews, 5 focus groups, and observations at four Islamic educational institutions. Our analysis is oriented around two religio-scientific movements: 1) ‘Islamic creationism’, and 2) the claim that the Qur’an anticipated modern scientific discoveries ( i‘jaz ‘ilmi ). Our participants were overwhelmingly reluctant to read scientific ideas into the Qur’an. Their views on evolution were more varied but were typically flexible and did not amount to focused opposition. We thus stress the importance of distinguishing scholarly, popular and lay religion for understanding Muslim science rejection and countering anti-Muslim stereotypes.
Abstract Queer Muslims in Europe navigate social positions within contexts marked by inequality, yet the empirical research on their lived experiences has not been systematically mapped. This study critically synthesises empirical research (2000–2024) on queer Muslims with non-normative sexual orientations in Europe. Following PRISMA -ScR guidelines, we searched Scopus and Web of Science databases for studies in English, applied inclusion and exclusion criteria, and charted data from 42 studies. Thematic analysis identified six themes: identity negotiation; discrimination and structural oppression; spaces of belonging; visibility and coming-out paradigms; policies, services and access; and epistemic resistance. Research on queer Muslims in Europe remains uneven, with gendered and geographic gaps. Future work should broaden representation and adopt context-sensitive frameworks to inform policy, scholarship and practice.
The present research, based on the analysis of the Lithuanian language Online Islamic Environments ( OIE s) and in-depth semi-structured interviews with leading figures in local Muslim religious organizations, sought to answer the question of to what extent Lithuania’s Muslim institutional actors have realized the purported potential of the OIE s and have been utilizing them for their own benefit. The research revealed that the Lithuanian Muslim institutional religious actors have only to a very limited extent realized the potential of the OIE s in dispensing of Islamic knowledge and this way attracting new adherents, and also establishing themselves as Islamic authorities. Thus, qualified actors are passive in their engagement with the OIE s, while the most active lack the necessary religious credentials and status. In result, the Lithuanian Muslim religious entities appear, so far, to contribute very little to the Lithuanian OIE s and are totally on the periphery of the global OIE s.
This article examines the evolving landscape of the Hungarian-language Islamic cyberspace, focusing on the shifting roles of state-recognised Muslim organisations and independent Muslim content creators. By applying certain elements of netnography with this help of semi-structured interviews, this study analyses how Islamic institutions as well as Muslim content creators use social media to cultivate parasocial relationships, negotiate religious authority, address socially sensitive issues such as Christmas celebrations and LGBTQ identities, and shape perceptions of Islam within a politically hostile environment. Findings show that while institutional organisations maintain cautious, inward-looking communication, content creators embody a more outward-oriented, dialogical, and often more inclusive approach. The article contributes to the literature by offering the first in-depth exploration of a Central European Muslim online environment and highlights how digital platforms are reshaping religious authority, identity, and community formation among Hungarian- speaking Muslims.
Public debate on Muslims in Switzerland is characterized to a significant degree by issues of problematisation and securitisation. In this debate, imams have become an increasingly frequent topic, seen for example as those who steer Muslim communities. This article examines how perceptions and ascriptions in public debate affect the self-image of imams and is therefore concerned with the subjectivation of imams. Based on a discourse analysis of mass media and political debates in Switzerland and interviews with male imams, it reconstructs subject positions addressing imams, as well as their self-positionings. Findings indicate that imams are addressed by an anti-subject and an ideal model subject, leaving little space for manoeuvre in the imam’s self-positioning. However, applying the concept of mimicry suggests that there may be more agency for imams than revealed at first glance.
Despite the increasing presence of Islamic digital learning in the education landscape of the Commonwealth of Independent States ( CIS ) region, it has largely been ignored in research. This article aims to highlight Online Islamic Education Platforms ( OIEP s) by examining their role in spreading Islamic knowledge in CIS countries. It discusses several OIEP s within the broader context of Islamic education in the region and the global expansion of OIEP s. By analysing the web content and curriculum ideologies of OIEP s I suggest that regional OIEP s tend to reflect locally accepted religious orthodoxies. In contrast, trans-regional OIEP s, which operate outside state-controlled Islamic environments, are more aligned with global trends, whether that involves inter- madhhab Sunnism, Salafism or Islamic reformism. Islamic reformism, which is the primary focus of the article, aims to bridge the gap between religious and secular disciplines, particularly social sciences and humanities, and to promote Islamic education reform in the region.
