Presents original descriptive data on the activities and structures of Islamic organisations

Offers a critical description of the existing academic literature on the social activities of Islamic actors in several countries of Western Europe

Illustrates how Muslim European populations are often theoretically represented as isolated from the state structure

Autorentext
Elisa Banfi is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the Institute for Citizenship Studies (InCite) at the University of Geneva. Her work focuses on Muslim organisations in Europe, the engagement of religious actors, and the relationship between Islam and politics.

Klappentext

This book offers a comparative examination of Islamic welfare activities across urban areas in both Switzerland and Italy, in order to address general issues relating to the welfare engagement of Islamic organisations in Europe.

Welfare Activities by New Religious Actors describes how Islamic organisations have been coordinated and structured in Geneva, Milan, Rome, and Zurich; four cities not yet analysed in the literature on Islamic welfare. It also explores the institutional opportunities and constraints are able to influence forms of social religious activities at the local and international level by bringing together two research fields that seldom speak to each other: social network analysis and political opportunity theory.

This book will appeal to scholars of Sociology, Anthropology and Religious Studies dealing with the social and political inclusion of Muslims in Europe and the social activities of Islamic organisations in Western countries.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Analysing Islamic Welfare Activism in Western European Countries.- 3. Islamic Sociocultural Activism in Zurich.- 4. Islamic Sociocultural Activism in Rome.- 5. Islamic Sociocultural Activism in Geneva.- 6. Islamic Sociocultural Activism in Milan.-7.Intranational and Cross-National Data Analysis.- 8. Conclusion.