Political Islam in Europe
Political Islam in Europe

Author(s): Amel Boubekeur
Subject(s): Governance, Public Law, Politics and religion
Published by: CEPS Centre for European Policy Studies
Summary/Abstract: Europe is currently home to an extremely diverse landscape of political Islamic movements. This diversity is even greater than in most Muslim countries, where ideological Islamic expression is often limited by the official ideology of the state. In Europe, these movements are often mobilised in defence of European Muslim interests; they work for the recognition of Islam or as its spokesperson in dealing with European states or with the majority of Muslims who are not concerned with political Islam. These movements have been present in Europe for a long while now (between 20 and 40 years for most of them) but their daily realities are still not well known to European policy-makers, neither at the European, national nor local level. This presentation of the European landscape of political Islam does not aim to be exhaustive. We will concentrate on those movements that are the most active in the political sphere and whose political evolution is the most significant, such as the Islamists in exile from the Muslim world, the UIOE (Union of Islamic Organisations of Europe), the Muslim Brotherhood, the Milli Görüs and political Sufism such as the Participation and Muslim Spirituality movement or the Ahbash. Finally, we will also look at missionary and predicative movements such as the Tabligh and Salafism. We will thus not be looking at jihadist movements or at Shi’ism, nor will we deal with the cultural and ethnic management of certain Turkish, North African, Arab or Indo-Pakistani Islamic movements.

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