Being German, Becoming Muslim

Every year more and more Europeans, including Germans, are embracing Islam. It is estimated that there are now up to one hundred thousand German converts--a number similar to that in France and the United Kingdom. What stands out about recent conversions is that they take place at a time when Islam is increasingly seen as contrary to European values. Being German, Becoming Muslim explores how Germans come to Islam within this antagonistic climate, how they manage to balance their love for Islam with their society's fear of it, how they relate to immigrant Muslims, and how they shape debates about race, religion, and belonging in today's Europe.

"An excellent book and fills a very important gap in research on con- version to Islam in Europe. It will be of interest not only to academics and students in a diverse range of subject areas such as Islamic Studies, Sociology and Anthropology, but also to the wider public interested in Islam and the role of converts in shaping Islam in Europe."---Yafa Shanneik, Journal of Muslims in Europe

Auteur
Esra Özyürek is an associate professor at the European Institute of the London School of Economics. She is the author of Nostalgia for the Modern: State Secularism and Everyday Politics in Turkey.

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"Through thoughtful portraits, Ozyurek explores the dilemmas faced by converts to Islam in Germany, where new Muslims are seeking nonethnic forms of the religion. She shows how these converts are finding an original way to be German through their Islam--a discovery that seems dangerous to some in the German state. A clear, convincing account of new Muslims in a European land."--John Bowen, author of Can Islam Be French?

"In a society where 'Muslim' has come to imply 'nonwhite immigrant, ' and where German-Islam for many is a contradiction of identity, how do native German Muslims tread across these conundra? Ozyurek's engaging and penetrating book leads us through the issues and reveals as much about Germany and a select group of Germans as it does about Islam."--Ruth Mandel, University College London

"This book offers both a call and a hope. Ozyurek shows the tremendous role of Muslim converts in making Islam a German and European religion, and she calls converts to meet this challenge. She also presents the common hope of everyone 'living together' in unity, and her book is an important contribution to the achievement of this goal."--Tariq Ramadan, University of Oxford

"Given the current position of Islam in Europe, why do Europeans convert? What do the experiences of converts reveal about contemporary life, particularly in Germany? This rich book offers a new perspective and entree into the discussion of religion in Europe."--Damani J. Partridge, University of Michigan

"Ozyurek has written an engaging, highly readable portrait of German converts to Islam who have become key figures in public debates over the future of the country as a multireligious, multiethnic polity. The book serves as a primer on the history of Islam in Germany and plumbs the limits of European secularism. A pleasure to read."--Paul Silverstein, Reed College

Contenu

Acknowledgments ix Introduction Germanizing Islam and Racializing Muslims 1 Chapter 1 Giving Islam a German Face 24 Chapter 2 Establishing Distance from Immigrant Muslims 51 Chapter 3 East German Conversions to Islam after the Collapse of the Berlin Wall 69 Chapter 4 Being Muslim as a Way of Becoming German 87 Chapter 5 Salafism as the Future of European Islam? 109 Chapter 6 Conclusion 132 Notes 137 References 149 Index 163