Localizing Islam in Europe: Turkish Islamic Communities in Germany and the Netherlands

Conclusion

250 Conclusion In early 1990s, the unexpected end of Cold War politics, which was based on ideological struggle and the balance of hard power such as nuclear capacity, left the international arena with a vacuum. Sources of soft power, such as religious and ethnic identities, provide the new basis for international politics. The strong comeback of religion in the public sphere undermined the secularization thesis of modernization theories, which had predicted that religion would be limited to the private sphere or vanish with the advancement of science and rational thinking. The forces that were supposed to destroy religion, such as technology, mass education, and cultural globalization, in fact increased the role of religion on the national and international level (Kuru 2005). Global terrorist networks use the Internet to spread their ideologies of hatred and coordinate their operations . Mass education and media led to the fragmentation of religious authority and objectification of religious knowledge in the Muslim world, to define Islam through “Muslim politics” (Eickelman and Piscatori 1996). These changes in the international arena have made Islam a test case for religion ’s constructive and destructive roles in the contemporary world. The terrorists of 9/11, who planned their activities in a cell in Hamburg, Germany, hijacked not only the planes but also Islam for many Muslims. This made Muslims living in Europe of particular interest to researchers. One approach to the topic is to focus on the economically disadvantageous position of and social discrimination against Muslims, which makes them prey to terrorist organizations. Although the disenfranchisement of young Muslims is a cause for their frustration, which causes delinquency, this approach is unsatisfactory to explain terrorist attacks and bombings. Of the 13 million Muslims living in Western Europe who share a similar socioeconomic position, only a fraction follow a violent course of action. Furthermore, socioeconomic causes alone do not address the role of religious Conclusion • 251 beliefs and ideas in radicalism. Thus, the question of why some Muslims respond with rage, while others adapt themselves and their beliefs to Europe, remains to be adequately answered. My approach focuses on who has the authority to speak in the name of Islam. The comparison of the different ways in which religious authority is formulated and transmitted provides the basis upon which diversity within Islam rests. My research on Turkish Muslims in Europe indicates that Islamic communities and organizations are the strongest voices who speak in the name of Islam in Europe. They have transnational ties, which allow them to carry out their agenda from their places of origin to different parts of Europe, with varying degrees of adaptation. Transnational Islamic communities provide a field in which the line between the universal and fixed aspects and the adaptive aspects of Islam are redrawn. I propose an anthropology of Islamic knowledge and practice to understand how Muslims’ experience in Europe relates to Islam and how Islamic precepts informs Muslims to practice their religion in Europe. The Islamic field model defines the major actors and their relationships. Islamic communities are the major negotiators of religious belief and practice between Muslims and state policies. They respond to the demands and concerns of Muslims while also carrying them to the state authorities as official representatives and spokespartners on behalf of Muslims. State authorities consider these Islamic communities and their organizations to be their major interlocutors in reaching out to Muslims. State authorities co-opt some of the Islamic communities and ban others, by which they contribute to the adaptation of Islam to Europe. In this field model, Islamic communities compete among themselves to gain more followers among Muslims and the support of the state. In this negotiation and competition process, Islamic communities produce Islamic knowledge and engage in activism as the central Islamic authorities in this religious field. I analyze how Islamic communities claim religious authority and produce Islamic interpretation through an anthropology of Islamic knowledge approach. Anthropology of Islamic Knowledge The conceptualization of Islam is a challenge, because there is inner diversity along with real or perceived continuity and unity among Muslims. Structuralist approaches emphasize continuity in Islamic knowledge based on the textual 252 • Localizing Islam in Europe sources of Quran and Hadith in defining Islam. For instance, Ernest Gellner (1981) treated Islam as a total phenomenon that is radically different from other religious traditions. Post-structuralist anthropological theories emphasize the inner diversity and flexibility of Islam by observing the patterns of behavior among Muslims...