Islamic Studies in European Higher Education: Navigating Academic and Confessional Approaches

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Jorgen S. Nielsen Stephen Jones

Islamic Studies in European Higher Education

Navigating Academic and Confessional Approaches

Jorgen S. Nielsen, Stephen Jones

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English

Edinburgh University Press
10 June 2025

Islam; Religious instruction; Educational strategies & policy; Higher & further education, tertiary education

Across Europe there are numerous examples of recent linkages between universities and Islamic seminaries. In Germany the federal 'top-down' experiment, now over ten years old, of establishing departments of Islamic theology in five universities has now recruited over 2000 students, many of whom will end up teaching confessional Islam RE in schools. In the UK, local partnerships have been developed at under- and postgraduate level between e.g. Warwick, Birmingham and Middlesex universities and Islamic seminaries representing a range of Islamic traditions. Similar experiences are being developed on a smaller scale in other countries. These developments, which have taken place against a backdrop of state pressure to 'integrate' Islam and address 'radicalisation', challenge university traditions of 'scientific' approaches to the study of Islam as well as the confessional expectations of faith-based Islamic theological training. By looking more closely at the developing experience in Germany and Britain and selected other countries this volume explores how the two approaches are finding ways of creative cooperation.

Edited by: Jorgen S. Nielsen, Stephen Jones
Imprint: Edinburgh University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781399510868
ISBN 10: 139951086X
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 10 June 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jorgen S. Nielsen is Emeritus Professor of Contemporary European Islam, University of Birmingham, and Affiliate Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Copenhagen. He studied Arabic and Middle East studies at SOAS, London, and did his PhD in Arab history at the American University of Beirut. Since 1978 he has researched Islam in Europe at Selly Oak Colleges and the University of Birmingham. He was director of the Danish Institute in Damascus 2005-7 and then spent six years as Danish National Research Foundation professor at the Faculty of Theology, Copenhagen University. He is the author of Muslims in Western Europe (Edinburgh, 1st ed. 1993, 4th edition with Jonas Otterbeck 2016) and is involved in editing several book series for Brill (Leiden) as well as the Journal of Muslims in Europe.

Reviews for Islamic Studies in European Higher Education: Navigating Academic and Confessional Approaches

"This excellent collection demonstrates the rich, yet often contested complementarity between academic and confessional approaches to Islam. Expert authors show repeatedly the vital role of the university in charting the history and the living faith of Islam that is at the heart of modern Europe's search for a shared and productive identity.--Alison Scott-Baumann, SOAS, University of London This volume provides a timely challenge to the allegedly settled boundaries between ""confessional"" and ""non-confessional"" in Islamic Studies. They equally suggest various pathways of how Islamic theological perspectives can be successfully included in European higher education settings.--Oliver Scharbrodt, Lund University"