Conférence internationale sur les musulmans et la participation politique en Europe, qui prendra en compte la triple dimension de participation politique effective des musulmans ainsi que du débat religieux interne et du discours public que cette participation suscite.

Organized by

• Centre for European Islamic Thought, University of Copenhagen
• EurIslam network, PRISME, University of Strasbourg

Place: Alexandersalen, Bispetorvet 1-3, København K.

The international conference will focus on the following overlapping and interlocking dimensions:

1. The processes and realities of Muslim participation in local and national politics: Voting patterns and representation in local and national assemblies; the place of Islam as an identifying factor – do candidates highlight or marginalize their ‘Muslimness’ (and what is ‘Muslim’ in this context?); the relationship between Muslim and ethnic identities in the political processes.  

2. Internal Muslim debates about political participation in Europe: Attitudes of Muslims to the democratic processes; views for and against political participation in non-Muslim society; who can/should represent Muslims, or are there other priorities?  

3. Public discourses about Muslim participation; political participation as a method or consequence of integration; state policies regarding Muslim political participation; relationship between participation and citizenship; is Muslim participation welcomed or contingent on privatizing the faith?   

Programme outline 

6-8 October 2010

Plenary lectures 

• 1st Plenary: Tufyal Choudhury, Durham Law School, Senior Policy Advisor, Open Society Institute. At Home in Europe Project: Muslims in EU Cities
• 2nd Plenary: Prof. Aminah McCloud, DePaul University, Chicago. Who speaks for Islam and how do they speak? 
• 3rd Plenary: Dr Franck Fregosi, PRISME, University of Strasbourg. Forms of collective mobilization of Muslims in France and in contemporary Europe: new issues and new types of involvement. 
• 4th Plenary: Prof. Thijl Sunier, VU Amsterdam. Beyond the domestication of Islam in Europe 

Parallel paper session 1 

Group A – Chair:  Anne-Laure Zwilling 

• Alexander Castilla (Independent researcher). Muslims in Catalonia: Misunderstandings, reciprocity and the search for group cohesion 
• Maria Bombardieri (Milan). The dawning of Muslim political participation in Italy 
• Luis Bernardo (Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal). The political accommodation of Islam in Ireland and Portugal: Institutional configurations and religious diversity  

Group B – Chair:  Jörn Thielmann 

• Mustafa Osman Turan (Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey). Political interactions between immigrant organizations and “liberal” states in Europe 
• Niels Valdemar Vinding (CEIT, University of Copenhagen, Denmark). The necessity of Muslim political participation 

Group C – Chair:  Riem Spielhaus 

• Mohammad Mesbahi and M.Samiei (University of Surrey and Islamic College, UK). A case study of MINAB in the UK 
• Deniz Kosulu (Political Science, Institut d’Etudes politiques d’Aix-en-Provence, France). The Alevi quest in Europe: From a religious and cultural recognition to the entry into the political area

Parallel paper session 2 

Group A – Chair:  Franck Fregosi 

• Justin Gest (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK). Interrogating alienation: Classical social theory in the global era 
• Marion Maddox (Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, Macquarie University, NSW, Australia). Muslim political participation: A comparative perspective 
• Sean McLoughlin (Department of Theology & Religious Studies, University of Leeds, UK). Muslims, multiculturalism and the UK State after ‘7/7’ 

Group B – Chair:  Thijl Sunier 

• Ekrem Eddy Güzeldere (European Stability Initiative). German elections 2009 and the Turkish/Muslim community 
• Jörn Thielmann (Erlangen Centre for Islam and Law in Europe EZIRE, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany). Engaging the state: The Islamic community Milî Görus and the German politics 
• Salima Bouyarden (France). The Muslim vote in France and the UK: origins and new patterns 

Group C – Chair:  Egdunas Racius 

• Iben Helquist (Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, RUC, Denmark). Muslim Interest Groups in Denmark: Credible and reliable partners of the public administration? 
• George Michalakopoulos and Dr Christina Melliou (Department of Translation and Interpretation, Ionian University, Greece). Is political participation of Muslim communities an end in itself, or is it a means to an end? The case of the Muslim community in Thrace   
• Sheila B. Lalwani (Harvard University, USA). Journalism, policy, women’s issues, Islam, diversity

Parallel paper session 3

Group A – Chair:  Sean McCloughlin

• Stéphane Lathion (GRIS, l’Université de Fribourg, Switzerland). Muslims in Switzerland: What has the minaret initiative changed for the Muslim associative leader? 
• Ivan Ureta-Vaquero (University of Lugano, Switzerland). Public discourse and the raising of Islamophobia with a focus on Switzerland: Limiting political organization 

Group B – Chair:  Samim Akgönûl 

• Egdunas Racius (Vilnius University, Lithuania). Lithuanian Muslim attitudes toward participation in democratic political process 
• Ajala Imène (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland). The Muslim vote and Muslim lobby in France: Myths and realities 
• Marco Giugni and Noémi Michel (University of Geneva, Switzerland). Muslims in Switzerland: Associational involvement, political attitudes and social characteristics 

Group C – Chair:  Azhar Ibrahim 

• Rabih Barakat (University of Strasbourg). Political participation as a method of integration Muslims religious self-governance as a means of effective political participation  
• Agata S. Nalborczyk (University of Warsaw, Poland). The political participation of Polish Muslim Tatars – the result of or the reason for integration? From wars with Teutonic knights to the Danish cartoons affair 
• Riem Spielhaus (CEIT, University of Copenhagen, Denmark). From access to engagement – an empirical approach to political participation among Muslims in Berlin 

Parallel papers session 4 

Group A – Chair: Maria Bombardieri 

• Fatima Zibouh (Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies at ULG, Belgium). The Muslims’ political participation in Belgium 
• Göran Larsson and Jonathan Bäckelie (University of Gothenburg, Sweden). Young Muslims and political participation in Sweden 
• Maike Didero (Aachen University, Germany). Political participation of Muslim immigrants in Germany: a case of integration or fragmentation? The BFF in Bonn as an example 

Group B – Chair: Jørgen S. Nielsen 

• Garbi Schmidt (Institute for Social Science Research, Copenhagen, Denmark). ”Grounded” politics: The powerfulness of Islam in local spaces 
• Timothy Peace (European University Institute, Florence, Italy). Muslim political participation in Britain: the case of Respect 

Group C – Chair:  Stefano Allievi 

• Z. Fareen Parvez (Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, USA). Representing “Islam of the Banlieues”: The politics and antipolitics of Muslims in France 
• Nadia Jeldtoft (CEIT, University of Copenhagen, Denmark). Representativeness and Muslim Minority Identities: Islam in the Everyday Lives of Muslims in Europe 
• Zeynep Hale Öner-Keifer (Dogus University, Istanbul, Turkey). 'Active participation' for women through the lens of a triparty analysis: Students, politicians and academicians view