Mosques in Denmark and Sweden: Negotiations of public space, borders and identity The presence of mosques in Europe’s public spaces as part of the establishment of Islam is a recent phenomenon that has evoked in-depth social and cultural reactions and debates derived from the political, social, cultural and religious histories of Western and Islamic societies and relations. This paper seeks to contribute to the still emerging field of study of European Islam by exploring the relation between religion and architectural design in a wider theoretical and socio-political context. The study focuses on the processes surrounding the creation of contemporary purpose-built mosques and mosques in the initial stage of construction in Sweden and Denmark. An underlying assumption of this paper is that architectural specificities represent and reflect complex processes on several levels. Therefore the designs are used as lenses for examining the interactions between the Muslim actors promoting the erection of individual mosques, the architects designing them, and the impact of the discourses in which these negotiations are embedded. Questions asked are: Which considerations influence Muslim actors in each individual case with regard to such issues as gender, power, class, and the borders between public space and the private sphere in relation to Islamic tradition and identity? How are Islamic iconography and symbols incorporated visually as well as acoustically? To what extent are architects bound to the architectural discourse on mosque building, and what motives are guiding them in their designs? Do architects consider themselves agents of integration, how do they relate to their clients, and how are these negotiations visualized in the architectural designs? Empirical research continuously is conducted by following the work of the actors involved by in-depth and semi-structured interviews. The qualitative data evolving from this research will be analyzed and woven into a discussion on the national characteristics of both states taking into account variables that include the form of the state; the judicial systems governing church–state relations, the status of religious minorities, patterns of immigration, and laws covering citizenship. Postcolonial theory and the concepts of cultural memory and cultural heritage form a wide theoretical frame of the study. Once completed this study will contribute to a better informed debate and understanding of the negotiations and perhaps renegotiations of borders and identity, not only among European Muslims, but also at the intersection of public and private spheres of European societies.

The hip-hop culture has developed from a marginalized African-American subculture in New York City to a global, billion-dollar industry. Muslims have flavored hip-hop from its beginning, from early recordings evoking Malcolm X’s speeches to current Muslim rappers such as Talib Kweli or Jedi Mind Tricks. Islam is an integrated part of the culture, and sometimes, it is called the “official religion of hip-hop”. This paper focuses on album cover art, which is a scarcely studied subject when it comes to academic analyses of hip-hop music. Even though hip-hop and Islam are widely studied subjects, scholars, with few exceptions, typically have focused on Islamic themes in lyrics. This paper aims to contribute to the study of Islamic visual expressions within the hip-hop culture. Many hip-hop artists have expressed their Islamic faith through the artwork on their albums, a practice that dates back to the early days of hip-hop. This Muslim hip-hop album cover art often is filled with symbols and allusions to the Islamic faith. Even though the hip-hop culture is a global phenomenon this paper mainly focuses on the American hip-hop scene. In examining a selection of hip-hop albums, including some that depict highly controversial allusions to Islam and others whose allusions to Islam are barely perceived, this paper aims to shed light on the relationship between album cover art and the diversity of, and even contradictory beliefs in Islam that manifest and coexist within the American hip-hop community. This diversity ranges from non-mainstream Islamic movements, such as the Nation of Islam and the Nation of Gods and Earths to various interpretations of Sunni Islam; all are different traditions that struggle for space and their right to interpret and define Islam. This paper's theoretical frame(s) are drawn from cultural studies, more specifically notions of “cultural borrowing”. It also draws from previous findings from the field of hip-hop studies concerning the historical legacies and Muslim influences that have shaped hip-hop music.

The first aim of my paper is to discuss and analyse how the Prophet Muhammad is portrayed in two contemporary novels. The Swedish author Torbjörn Säfve wrote the first novel (De sanna och falska), and Kader Abdolah, who currently is living in the Netherlands, wrote the second novel (De boodscapper). Contrary to the so-called “classical” and “pre-modern” Sira-books that were produced by Ibn Ishaq and Muhammad Haykal in the 20th century, the two novels are mainly written for a non-Muslim audience. To what extent does this fact influence the content of the books, and is the history of the Prophet Muhammad presented in a different way in these two books, compared with the traditional Sira books produced by Muslim writers? A second aim of this paper is to highlight the reception of the books by Torbjörn Säfve and Kader Abdolah on the Prophet Muhammad in Western media. To what extent do the reviewers highlight that Säfve and Abdolah have chosen to write about the Prophet of Islam? The last and overall aim of the paper is to seek possible explanations for why there seems to be a growing interest in the historical Muhammad in contemporary Western. The presentation of the Prophet Muhammad in non-Muslim fictional work always has been closely related to the question of how Islam and Muslims are represented in the public sphere and how Islam is portrayed as friend or foe. When it comes to theoretical and methodological issues, the two novels will be analysed and compared with the help of content analysis. Here, one aim is to try to see if the story of the life of the Prophet Muhammad in the novels differs from that in so-called Islamic sources. The paper also will try to situate the discussion about the Prophet Muhammad within the larger discussion about Islam and Muslims in the public sphere in the West.

The Turkish Cypriot Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani (b. 1922), leader of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi order with a transnational network of disciples, ceased his travels in the early 2000s. Consequently, regular visits to his home in the northern Cypriot village of Lefke are important in the lives of his devoted disciples. Recently, however, visitors’ physical access to the shaykh has been limited due to his advanced age. At the same time, the shaykh is arguably more accessible than ever. This paper draws on fieldwork in Naqshbandi-Haqqani settings in both London and Cyprus between 2006 and 2009. It also considers how the Internet has been used for disseminating the shaykh’s communications. ‘Transnationalism’ here carries two meanings: 1) as a condition, a world where transnational connections significantly affect peoples’ lives, and 2) as a project, meaning ideas advocating patterns of action and belonging that transcend national borders. Both these aspects are central in the case of Shaykh Nazim and his disciples. His disciples come from very different backgrounds to visit his home; what they share is primarily an intense emotional bond to the shaykh, who for them embodies ‘true Islam’. The shaykh in his turn addresses ‘all nations’ in his communications, propagating an Islamic Sufism that transcends ethnic, cultural and national borders. Previously, his message was chiefly spread through extensive travels and books. In recent years, his particular understanding of Sufism has been disseminated via the Internet, becoming one vocal position among many within a transnational Muslim public sphere where interpretations of Islam are presented, contested and consumed, meeting both resonance and rejection. This paper argues that due to a high-profiled public agenda in national environments, e.g. efforts to establish a political coalition of Sufis in Britain with Shaykh Nazim’s blessing, paired with skilled use of the Internet in disseminating Shaykh Nazim’s communications worldwide, it is possible for the shaykh to impact the transnational Muslim public sphere despite his physically isolated situation. Evidence of this impact can be seen in the visits of symbolically important guests to his home in Cyprus, such as Sufi shaykhs of other orders from various contexts who come to pay their respect. This can furthermore be related to an emerging transnational Muslim discourse propagating ‘traditional Islam’ as opposed to ‘extremism’.

Picture books and other visual merchandize for children and youth have a central role in Euro-American Sunni Muslim efforts at religious socialization. The proposed paper aims at making some analytical remarks on the complex cultural interplay inherent to the visual aspects of such pedagogic–cum–commercial material. Islamic children’s literature originated in Muslim American and European minority organizations from the 1970s, but since then the market is gradually being globalized. The first producers adhered to a normative tradition of Sunni-Islamic revivalism and dawa, that is, efforts of ’mission’ and edification, counteracting what was perceived as the pressures of assimilation of Muslims into secular culture. Gradually, however, the picture books accommodated to (originally) Euro-American models for marketing and aesthetics, while creatively renegotiating classic religious norms of visual representation. This paper will discuss the trends of visual innovation present in the material. Through the use of discourse analysis, this paper presents how the religious and iconographic references of the images gradually have changed over time, partly reflecting the changing status and needs of the Muslim minority communities. The literature displays a topical development from a male transmission of archaic sacred tradition, to a diversified line of production where female authors have come to dominate, dealing with broader contemporary and moral issues. The re-invention of an Islamic visual culture manifest in the children’s literature seems to display an interesting balancing act between emulation and rejection of perceived “Western” cultural and commercial values. Theoretically, this may be understood in terms of cultural creolization (Hannerz 1996), that is, as equally creative and subversive measures enacted from a position of socio-cultural marginality, aspiring influence, recognition and the reversal of the processes of cultural subordination.