The Islamic Challenge:  Politics and Religion in Western Europe

by Jytte Klausen Oxford University Press, 2005, Pp. 253

Reviewed by Dr. Susan K. Hedahl

            This book is a superlative inter-disciplinary perspective on what it means to be Muslim and live in Western Europe.  Klausen is Professor of Comparative Politics at Brandeis University and offers a work which uses sociological methodologies to analyze the effects of political movements, policies and realities on the Muslim populations of six European countries:  the countries are Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, and Germany.  Her pool of information is based on interviews with 300 Muslim leaders from these countries, which she notes "were very largely moderate Muslims, but I also did meet some radicals." (1).

        Her work looks at the many ways the six named countries are dealing with "emerging institutions, debates, adaptations, and confrontations...." (3).  This work uses the interviews and statistics to develop these six chapters:  Europe's New Muslim Political Elite; How Do Muslim Leaders See the Problems? From Conflict to Culture War; Christian and Muslim Europe; Sexual Politics and Multiculturalism and Conclusion: Liberal Muslims and the Emergence of European Islam.

       Klausen leads the reader through a close analysis of the immigration politics which each country has developed - or created through reaction - and shows the impact of these policies on Muslims living in these countries.  The reader is introduced to a set of terms, which bear close scrutiny.  She says, "Key terms are 'diasporic communities,' 'bricolage,' 'hybridity,' 'postnational citizenship,' and 'transnational public space.'   These cultural negotiations happen amidst the possible options of community:  "some form of accommodation, or integration, or assimilation...." ( 10)

      One observation, which Klausen addresses in several ways, is the manner in which Muslims "do" community and politics and how this does or does not mesh with the older European politic affiliations of right, center and left.  The grinding of the cultural gears between Muslims and those who populate their host country has a great deal to do with this basic tension.

     Interestingly, the Lutheran Church figures in this scholarly work in both positive and negative ways.  In discussing whether proselytizing or inter-faith dialogue is the best approach, Retired Bishop LWF President emeritus Dr. Christian Krause is quoted in his speech to the Tenth LWF Assembly in 2003 regarding the promotion of dialogue through the anchoring dialogue in the fact of membership in the Abrahamic faith family.  Klausen follows this passage by noting:  "Scandinavian Lutherans have found the Abrahamic approach difficult to accept." 149).

     Proof of this difficulty is found in one of the most interesting studies in the book; a look at the Danish Lutheran Church's control over burial. (109-113).  Muslims, who number 250,000 in Denmark, are basically kept out of all but five cemeteries making burial difficult and costly for both legal and cultural reasons.  The Lutheran Church does not hesitate to charge Muslims significant fees for any type of changes in current burial laws. Klausen says, "Pastors and local church authorities from the tax-supported national Lutheran Church have argued that it is unconstitutional for the government to use tax money to help the Muslim minority." [!]   In other words, Lutherans want it both ways when it comes to Church and State.

             Other than the surprisingly poor proof-reading job someone at Oxford University gave this book, this is an excellent, scholarly and highly educational work for Americans who can learn something from Europe's struggles and changes in the areas of immigration, religious freedom and the exercise of human rights.