Muslim Networks and Transnational Communities in and across Europe By Stefano Allievi and Jorgen Nielsen, eds. (Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 2003. 332 pages.)

Abstract

Through networks and media, European Muslims finally emerged as
social and public actors in both European societies and the context of the
broader ummah. This is the core subject of the book, an edited collection
that examines the networks and ways in which Muslims engage in the public
sphere. The discussion is supported with various case studies.
According to two of the contributors, Mark Le Vine and Peter
Mandaville, European Islam can develop alternative Muslim views that
affect the native homelands of European Muslims and also contribute to the
dynamic of self-perception and self-interpretation of Islam. European
Muslims animate religious debates and contribute to developing a critical,
pluralistic, and less conservative view of Islam. According to Mandaville,
differences (viewed as positive elements) are negotiated and not negated. This demonstrates, as fellow contributor Valerie Amiraux argues, that there
is the possibility within Islam to express different religious beliefs. Jorgen
Neilson notes in his chapter that many networks (e.g., the Indian
Deobandis, the Brelwis, or the Tabligh-i-Jama’at) have gained a space and
an influence in Europe that they cannot achieve in their home countries.
Many authors problematize singular conceptions of Islam. Unfortunately,
quite often Muslim is taken for granted and regarded as self-evident
and self-explanatory. Mandaville defines Muslims as “those who consider
Islam and its regular practice to be a primary (although, as we will see, not
necessarily as an exclusive one) component of self-identity” (p. 130), and
considers those who fall outside this definition to be ethnic, non-universalistic,
and cultural Muslims. Ironically, this definition looks similar to that
of fundamentalists, who believe that religious identity is the Muslims’ primary
essence, despite the fact that one of the book’s main aims is to demonstrate
that European Islam is tolerant and pluralistic.
In making distinctions between religion, culture, and society, Stefano
Allievi emphasizes similarities and minimizes differences and conflicts in
the construction of a pan-Islamic global and deterritorialized ummah. In
examining the tensions between the universal and the particular conceptions
of Islam and Islamic identification, Steven Vertovec, in particular,
focuses on the contemporary emergence of disaporic realities as “new
processes of localization” (p. 318) and the existence of specific national
forms of religion alongside universalist claims ...