Localizing Islam in Europe Turkish Islamic Communities in Germany and the Netherlands By Ahmet Yükleyen (New York: Syracuse University Press, 2012. 280 pages.)

Abstract

During April 2012, Salafi Muslims in Germany launched a Qur’an giveaway
program to save non-Muslims from hell. Soon after, public debates emerged
in the national media concerning broader Muslim transgressions in Europe.
Especially the Turks, 3 million strong and two-thirds of Germany’s Muslims
according to the Federal Migration and Refugees Office, underwent further
scrutiny. The August 17, 2012, issue of the popular news magazine Der Spiegel
posited why Turkish Muslims escaped the backlash against Islamist radicalism
this time: Despite their proud Muslim identity, Turks living in Europe yearn to
be integrated and feel at home in Germany. Until recently, migration scholars
emphasized the incompatibility between Islam and western values, thereby
portraying European Turks as another Muslim community that defied assimilation.
Localizing Islam challenges this scholarship and explains why Turks
feel at home in Europe. It compares several Turkish Sunni organizations in
Germany and the Netherlands, reinvents ways they interpret Islam, and argues
that Islam’s inner diversity has endured within the European context ...