Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T23:20:45.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Expressing Religiosity in a Secular Society: the Relativisation of Faith in Muslim Communities in Sweden

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2012

Anne Sofie Roald
Anne Sofie Roald*
Affiliation:
CMI (Chr. Michelsen Institute), PO Box 6033 Bedriftssenteret, N-5892 Bergen, Norway. Email: annesofie.roald@cmi.no
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article discusses religion in public space and the case study is Muslim minorities in Sweden. The discussion deals with secularisation trends within Muslim communities in Swedish society in view of the notion of counter-secularisation as a fixed and unchanged form of religious expressions in contemporary public life. What happens in Muslim communities as Muslims of various cultural backgrounds and religious orientations meet and interact in a new secular context? The article argues that, similar to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Christian reform movements opened up for a relativisation of faith and thus to a certain extent initiated a secularisation process, a relativisation of faith is at present an ongoing process in Muslim communities in Sweden. Of the three definitions on secularisation, promoted by Jose Casanova, secularisation as ‘differentiation of the secular spheres from religious institutions and norms’, ‘marginalisation of religion to a privatised sphere’, and ‘the decline of religious belief and practices’, Muslim practices in Sweden indicate an adherence to these two first notions of the relation between ‘church and state’. As for the last definition of secularisation; ‘the decline of religious belief and practices’, which has to do with private religious practices, many Muslims would regard themselves as religious without claiming a public role for religion, similar to many Christians in Sweden. Furthermore, many of the traits considered to be ‘religious’, might well be attempts to protect a particular cultural context rather than being signs on increased religion as such.

Type
Focus: Religiosity and Public Spaces
Information
European Review , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , 04 January 2012 , pp. 95 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes and References

1. For a discussion on secularisation theories; see for instance Berger, P. (1967) The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (New York: Doubleday) and T. Luckmann (1967) The Invisible Religion: The Problem of Religion in Modern Society (New York: Macmillan).Google Scholar
2.Martin, D. (1979) A General Theory of Secularisation (New York: Harper & Row); D. Martin (2005) On Secularisation: Towards a Revised General Theory (Surrey: Ashgate).Google Scholar
3.Casanova, J. (1994) Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Casanova, J. (1994) Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press), p. 211.Google Scholar
5.Casanova, J. (1994) Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press), p. 5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Casanova, J. (1994) Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press), p. 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Berger, P. (1999 (ed.) The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics (Washington: Ethic and Public Policy Centre & Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co), pp. 9–11.Google Scholar
8.Berger, P. (1999 (ed.) The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics (Washington: Ethic and Public Policy Centre & Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co), p. 9.Google Scholar
9.Roald, A.S. (2008) From theocracy to democracy? Towards secularisation and individualisation in the policy of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, 8, pp. 85–107.Google Scholar
10.Ödman, P.J. (1995) Kontrasternas Spel I-II (Stockholm: Nordstedts).Google Scholar
11.Bruce, S. (2002) God is Dead: Secularization in the West (Oxford: Blackwell), p. 18.Google Scholar
12.Casanova, J. (1994) Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press), p. 211.Google Scholar
13.Bruce, S. (2002) God is Dead: Secularization in the West (Oxford: Blackwell) I, p. 311.Google Scholar
14.Bruce, S. (2002) God is Dead: Secularization in the West (Oxford: Blackwell) I, p. 327.Google Scholar
15.Lundborg, J. (2002) När ateismen erövrade Sverige. Ingmar Hedenius och debatten kring tro och vetande (Falun. Nya Doxa).Google Scholar
16.Nordin, S. (2004) Ingmar Hedenius- en filosof och hans tid (Uddevalla: Natur och kultur).Google Scholar
17.Sigurdson, O. (2009) Det postsekuläre tillståndet (Gothenburg: Glänta Production), p. 11.Google Scholar
18.Meijer, R. (2009) Towards a Political Islam (The Hague: Netherlands Institute of International relations ‘Clingendael’), p. 3.Google Scholar
19.Carlbom, A. (2003) The Imagined Versus the Real Other. Multiculturalism and the representation of Muslims in Sweden (Lund: Department of Sociology, Lund University).Google Scholar
20.Meijer, R. (2009) Towards a Political Islam (The Hagu: Netherlands Institute of International relations ‘Clingendael’), p. 6; G. Krämer (1997) Islamists’ notions of democracy. In: J. Benin and J. Stork (eds) Political Islam: Essays from Middle East Report (Berkeley: University of California Press).Google Scholar
21.Safran, W. (ed.) (2003) The Secular and the Sacred. Nation, Religion and Politics, (London and Portland: Frank Cass Publisher), p. 3.Google Scholar
22.Taylor, C. (2009) A Secular Age (Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, UK: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press), p. 3.Google Scholar
23.Cesari, J. (2004) When Islam and Democracy Meet: Muslims in Europe and in the United States (New York: Palgrave Macmillan), p. 6.Google Scholar
24.Roy, O. (2004 [2002]) Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah (London: Hurst and Company), p. 3n.Google Scholar
25.Roy, O. (2004 [2002]) Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah (London: Hurst and Company), p. 5.Google Scholar
26.Roy, O. (2004 [2002]) Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah (London: Hurst and Company), p. 41.Google Scholar
27.Nasreen, T. (1997) Shame. A Novel (New York: Prometheus Books).Google Scholar
28. See for example ‘Taslima nasreen. Gone with the Wind’. Published 31 October 2001, accessed 13 May 2010 at http://www.globalwebpost.com/farooqm/writings/gender/taslima_n.htmGoogle Scholar
29. See ‘Army deployed after Calcutta riot’. Printed 21 November 2007, accessed 16 May 2010 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7105277.stmGoogle Scholar
30.Norell, M. and Göndör, E. (2007) Understanding and combatting education for martyrdom. In: J.F. Forster (ed.) Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century (Westport, CT: Praeger Security International), pp. 344–362, esp. 346.Google Scholar
31. ‘Nasr Abu Zayd’. Accessed 15 May at http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Nasr_Abu_ZaydGoogle Scholar
32.Hassan, R. (1990) An Islamic perspective. In: J. Becher (ed.) Women, Religion and Sexuality (Geneva: Kitab Bhavan World Council of Churches Publications).Google Scholar
33. A. al-Kubaysi The word and its synonyms in the Holy Koran:amr and idhn, 2000: 24th minute.Google Scholar
34.Roald, A.S. (2001) The wise men: democratisation and gender equalisation in the Islamic message: Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Ahmad al-Kubaisi on the air. Encounters, 7(1), pp. 29–55.Google Scholar
35. There is little research on Islamic architecture in Sweden. At Lund University, however, an art student has investigated Islamic religious buildings. See Knutsson, B. (2005) Blågul Islam? Svensk moskéarkitektur (Lund: The Institution for Art and Music at Lund University).Google Scholar
36.www.ur.se/Serie/Muslim-i-Europa/Moskeer-i-SverigeGoogle Scholar
37.Knutsson, B. (2005) Blågul Islam? Svensk moskéarkitektur (Lund: The Institution for Art and Music at Lund University), p. 43.Google Scholar
38.http://hem.spray.se/kifah.f/Sthlms_Moske/Andra_sidor/Histori.htmGoogle Scholar
39.Knutsson, B. (2005) Blågul Islam? Svensk moskéarkitektur (Lund: The Institution for Art and Music at Lund University), pp. 58–59.Google Scholar
40. I have observed the Islamic developments in Sweden from 1986 forward and many of my previous publications builds on these observations.Google Scholar
41.Roald, A.S. (2004) New Muslims in the European Context. The Experience of Scandinavian Converts (Brill: Leiden), pp. 162–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
42. Hamberg has observed that some immigrants become more religious, whereas others become less. There is thus not a particular pattern of increased or decreased religiosity in the migration process. See Hamberg, E. (1999) Migration and religious change. In: E. Helander (ed.) Religion and Social Transition (Helsinki: University of Helsinki), pp. 71–86.Google Scholar
43.Knutsson, B. (2005) Blågul Islam? Svensk moskéarkitektur (Lund: The Institution for Art and Music at Lund University), p. 50.Google Scholar
44.Knutsson, B. (2005) Blågul Islam? Svensk moskéarkitektur (Lund: The Institution for Art and Music at Lund University), p. 59.Google Scholar
45. See Roald, A.S. (2009) Muslimer i Nya Samhällen. Individuella och kollektiva rättigheter (Göteborg: Daidalos).Google Scholar
46. See, for instance, Mernissi, F. (1975) Beyond the Veil (Cambridge: Schenkman); F. Mernissi (1987) Women and Islam: An Historical and Theological Enquiry (Oxford: Blackwell); L. Ahmad (1992) Women and Gender in Islam (New Haven: Yale University Press); E. Ozdalga (1997) The Veiling Issue: Official Secularism and Popular Islam in Modern Turkey (London: Routledge); H. Sedghi (2009) Women and Politics in Iran: Veiling, Unveiling, and Reveiling (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
47. See, for instance, Mansson McGinty, A. (2009) Becoming Muslim (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan).Google Scholar
48. See, for instance, Shuhur, Z. (1992) Revealing Reveiling. Islamist Gender Ideology in Contemporary Egypt (New York: State University of New York Press); V. Moghadam (1994) Identity Politics and Women: Cultural Reassertions and Feminisms in International Perspective (Boulder, Colorado: Westview); E. Ozdalga (1997) Womanhood, dignity and faith: reflections on an Islamic woman's life story. European Journal of Women's Studies, 4, pp. 473–497.Google Scholar
49. The presentation on the development on the Islamic female covering is mainly based on participation observation in the town of Malmoe in the South of Sweden and even some observation from Stockholm and Gothenburg. I have, since the mid-1980s, lived and conducted research in Muslim communities in this town.Google Scholar
50.Høstmælingen, N., (ed.) Hijab I Norge. Trussel eller menneskerettighet, (Oslo: Abstrakt Forlag).Google Scholar
51. See Bringa, T. (1995) Being Muslim the Bosnian Way: Identity and Community in a Central Bosnian Village (Princeton: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
52. Discussions with Sonali refugees in Sweden.Google Scholar
53.Commins, D.D. (2009) The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia (London: I B Tauris & Co Ltd).Google Scholar
54. Personal observation. See also ‘Skola tvingade elever ta av burqa (5 October 2003) accessed 20 February 2010 at http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/skola-tvingade-elever-ta-av-burka-1.214276Google Scholar
55. Personal observation. See also Jacobsen, C. (2002) Tilhørighetens mange former. Unge muslimer i Norge (Oslo: Pax).Google Scholar
56.Salaam 9/92: 14–15.Google Scholar
57. See for instance Larsson, G. and Sander, Å. (2009) Islam and Muslims in Sweden: Integration or Fragmentation? A Contextual Study (Berlin and London: LIT Verlag).Google Scholar
58.Schmidt, G. (2004) Islamic identity formation among young Muslims: the case of Denmark, Sweden and the United States. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 24(1), p. 33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar