Islamic Studies in European Higher Education

Jørgen S. Nielsen is Emeritus Professor of Contemporary European Islam, University of Birmingham, and Affiliate Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Copenhagen. He studied Arabic and Middle East studies at SOAS, London, and did his PhD in Arab history at the American University of Beirut. Since 1978 he has researched Islam in Europe at Selly Oak Colleges and the University of Birmingham. He was director of the Danish Institute in Damascus 2005-7 and then spent six years as Danish National Research Foundation professor at the Faculty of Theology, Copenhagen University. He is the author of Muslims in Western Europe (Edinburgh, 1st ed. 1993, 4th edition with Jonas Otterbeck 2016) and is involved in editing several book series for Brill (Leiden) as well as the Journal of Muslims in Europe. Stephen H. Jones is Lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham. He is a sociologist of religion whose main areas of expertise are in Islam and Muslims in the UK and religious and non-religious publics’ perceptions of science. He is author of Islam and the Liberal State (IB Tauris, 2021) and presently Principal Investigator of a research project, ‘Science and the Transmission of Islamic Knowledge in Britain’, which examines views of Islam and science among students and teachers in UK Islamic educational institutions.

This excellent collection demonstrates the rich, yet often contested complementarity between academic and confessional approaches to Islam. Expert authors show repeatedly the vital role of the university in charting the history and the living faith of Islam that is at the heart of modern Europe’s search for a shared and productive identity.

• Notes on the Contributors Preface 1. Introduction: Incorporating Islam in European Higher Education Stephen H. Jones2. Islamic Studies in University and Seminary: Contest or Constructive Mutuality?Jørgen S. Nielsen3. (Re)habilitating the Insider: Negotiations of Epistemic Legitimacy in Islamic Theology and Newer Social Justice Mobilisation Birgitte Schepelern Johansen4. What do the Terms ‘Confessional’ and ‘Non-confessional’ Mean, and are they Helpful? Some Social Scientific Musings Sophie Gilliat-Ray5. A Decade of Islamic Theological Studies at German Universities: Expectations, Outcomes and Future Perspectives Bekim Agai and Jan Felix Engelhardt6. Islamic Theology in a Muslim-minority Environment: Distinctions of Religion within a New Academic DisciplineLena Dreier7. The Taalib as a Bricoleur: Transitioning from Madrasahto University in Modern Britain Haroon Sidat8. Why would Muslims Study Theology to Obtain an Academic Qualification? Mohammad Mesbahi9. Navigating Alongside the Limits of Mutual Interdependence: Flemish Islamic Religious Education Naïma Lafrarchi10. The Need for Teaching against Islamophobia in a Culturally Homogeneous Context: The Case of Poland Anna Piela, Katarzyna Górak-Sosnowska and Beata Abdallah-Krzepkowska11. Theology Faculties in Turkey: Between State, Religion and Politics Abdurrahman Hendek12. Closing Reflections: Going Beyond Secular–Religious and Confessional–Academic Dichotomies in European Islamic Studies Sariya Cheruvallil-ContractorIndex