Looking closely at relations between Muslims and their host countries, Abdulkader H. Sinno and an international group of scholars examine questions of political representation, identity politics, civil liberties, immigration, and security issues. While many have problematized Muslims in the West, this volume takes a unique stance by viewing Muslims as a normative, and even positive, influence in Western politics. Squarely political and transatlantic in scope, the essays in this collected work focus on Islam and Muslim citizens in Europe and the Americas since 9/11, the European bombings, and the recent riots in France. Main topics include Muslim political participation and activism, perceptions about Islam and politics, Western attitudes about Muslim visibility in the political arena, radicalization of Muslims in an age of apparent shrinking of civil liberties, and personal security in politically uneasy times.

Islam as a social and political force in Western liberal democracies

About the Author

Abdulkader H. Sinno is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is author of Organizations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond.

Reviews

This study, a compilation of papers submitted to a September 2005 Indiana University conference, explores the political impact that the growing Muslim minorities in Western Europe and North America have on their host societies. In addition to editor Abdulkader Sinno's introduction and conclusion, the volume contains 12 chapters organized under four broad themes: background studies of different Western countries' Muslim minorities; their representation and integration in the hosts' political system; Western public opinion toward Muslim immigrants; and the post-9/11 era's implications for majority-minority relations. While Sinno cites the Canadian approach with approval, he portrays an often fraught relationship between Western states and their Muslim citizens, and offers a broad range of suggestions for both communities to move towards a genuinely tolerant and integrated society. (HK)

-- Hobie Kropp * MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253220240
Author Abdulkader H. Sinno
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press