engleski

Ethnicity and Islam in the Diaspora

From the perspective of Islamic doctrine there is the ideal of one ummah, the community of all believers. However, ethnic and linguistic differences between Muslims, along with a variety of schools of thought within Islam point to reality which is far from presenting unity. Due to patterns of migration, Muslims in Europe portray a microcosm of the variety within the Islamic world. Yet, there is evidence of an emergent ethnic identity defined as Muslim among the new Muslim diaspora in Europe, made up largely of working-class immigrants. Namely, the need for self-preservation and self-presentation as well as the contest with the larger community within the context of the nation-state, contribute to the ethnicisation of the relevant Islamic communities, which may transcend ethnonational and other social divisions. The process can be observed among South Asian as well as among North African and other Muslims in Western Europe. The paper pertains to those issues of contemporary sociocultural and political life of Muslim immigrant populations in Europe which - in the interaction with some systemic characteristiscs of Islam - tend to furnish criteria for Muslim identity formation that is crossing ethnic barriers.

Muslims; Islam; ummah; migration; ethnic identity; ethnicisation; Europe

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