BEING GERMAN, BECOMING A MUSLIM
Race, Religion and Conversion in the New Europe
ESRA ÖZYÜREK
Associate Professor and Chair for Contemporary Turkish Studies
at the European Institute, London School of Economics.
Every year more and more Europeans, including Germans, are embracing Islam. Being German, Becoming Muslim explores how Germans come to Islam within this antagonistic climate, how they manage to balance their love for Islam with their society’s fear of it, how they relate to immigrant Muslims, and how they shape debates about race, religion, and belonging in today’s Europe.
Esra Özyürek looks at how mainstream society marginalizes converts and questions their national loyalties. In turn, converts try to disassociate themselves from migrants of Muslim-majority countries and promote a denationalized Islam untainted by Turkish or Arab traditions.
Being German, Becoming Muslim provides a fresh window into the connections and tensions stemming from a growing religious phenomenon in Germany and beyond.
Welcome address and introduction:
Patricia Kahane, president of the Karl Kahane Foundation, member of board, Bruno Kreisky Forum
Moderation:
Bashir Bashir, Senior lecturer in the dept. of sociology, political science and communication at the Open University Jerusalem, director of the Alternatives to Partition research group at the Bruno Kreisky Forum.