Title: Ahmet Yükleyen, Localizing Islam in Europe: Turkish Islamic Communities in Germany and the Netherlands (New York: Syracuse University Press, 2012)
Abstract: Europe/European Union AHMET YUKLEYEN, Localizing in Europe: Communities in Germany and the (New York: Syracuse University Press, 2012), Pp. 280, $ 39.95 clothWith the noticeably growing presence of in Europe, books such as Ahmet Yukleyen's Localizing in Europe: Communities in Germany and the offer a valuable and much-needed insight into the lives of Muslims as a minority. In a post-9/11 world in which Muslims have continually experienced a backlash against their religion, Yukleyen's accessible study contests the popular media image of as an uncompromising religion. The author describes as a flexible and diverse religion instead (2), suggesting that its communities in Europe do not view adaptation to local conditions as undermining their religion's universality (3). Yukleyen points out the significance of migration in history: migration started with hijrah, the emigration of the Prophet Muhammed from Mecca to Medina in AD 622 (146-50), and it continues to influence the faith of and the lives of Muslims to the present day (3-4).As the subtitle indicates, Localizing in Europe is a comparative analysis of Muslim life in Germany and the Netherlands. The book's main focus is the exploration of organized religious life within what Yukleyen calls the Turkish field (outlined in chapter 1). Yukleyen is interested in how the communities within which he undertook his fieldwork-primarily the Milli Gorus, Suleimanli, and Gulen communities-produce knowledge and practice, and how they construct religious authority (chapter 2 on Islamic Authority and Knowledge). According to Yukleyen, without ignoring tradition, the authorities he encountered actively interpret to fulfil both religious doctrines and their followers' needs in a non-Muslim environment (28). Yukleyen continues to explore the communities' different emphases on aspects of religious life that explain the diversity in activism (chapter 3 on Islamic Activism). Another factor responsible for adapted forms of in Europe is the communities' relationship to Turkey as well as to the specific European state. As the ties with their country of origin have weakened (4), Europe has increasingly been accepted as home (126), especially among the younger generations (127-28). The fact that Europe, not Turkey, has become the main reference point (ibid.) highlights the changes of Islam's meaning for Muslims from the 1960s until today (16-17). Yukleyen also engages with the significance of the state policies in the two countries and their impact on the lives of Muslims (State Policies and in Germany and the Netherlands outlined in chapter 4). The analysis of these internal and external factors helps Yukleyen identify convincingly different, but recognizably European forms of Islam (125). As a researcher, he treads a fine line between pointing out the inner diversity of and avoiding to essentialize or to propose endless forms of (as he explains in his analytical model on page 29). Yet by focusing on the significance of authority in his analysis, Yukleyen substantiates his view of as a diverse religion.The final two chapters concentrate on individual country case studies: chapter 5, Islamic Organizations and Muslim Integration, points out the discrepancies between organizations in their promotion of integration in the with its multicultural state policies (183); Chapter 6 takes a closer look at the controversial Kaplan community in a German context. …
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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