Debating Islam

1
Debating Islam: Switzerland – Europe
Islam-Debatten: Schweiz – Europa
Débats sur l’islam: Suisse – Europe
University of Berne
September 29 to October 1, 2011
Participants
Barras, Amélie
Amélie Barras recently finished her PhD at the London School of Economics in the
Department of Government, and is currently a visiting lecturer at the Graduate Institute
of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. She specializes in
politics and religion, with a focus on secularism, Islam and human rights.


“A rights based discourse to contest state secularism? The case of the
headscarf bans in France and Turkey”, in Democratization 16/6, 2009, 12371260.
“Contemporary laïcité: settings the terms of a new social contract? The slow
exclusion of women wearing headscarves”, in: Politics, Religion and Ideology
2010.
Behloul, Samuel M.
Samuel M. Behloul holds a doctorate in Arabic Science of the Free University in Berlin
and completed his habilitation in Science of Religions at the University of Lucerne
where he is lecturer and researcher. His main fields of research are empirical and
comparative analysis of religious phenomena, diaspora, transnationalism and Muslim
diaspora groups in West Europe with a special focus on Muslim communities from the
Balkans in Switzerland.



“Einige Beobachtungen zu der aktuellen Wahrnehmung und Thematisierung
des Islam in der Schweiz und im übrigen Westeuropa”, in: SGMOIK-Bulletin,
Nr. 32, Frühjahr 2011, 13-18.
“Homo Islamicus als Prototyp des Fremden”, in: swissfuture-Magazin, Nr. 11,
2011, 8-11.
“Religion or Culture? The public relations and self-presentations strategies of
Bosnian Muslims in Switzerland compared with other Muslims”, in: Marko
Valenta, Sabrina Ramet (eds.), The Bosnian Diaspora: Integration in
Transnational Communities, Ashgate Publishing (forthcoming)
2
Bleisch Bouzar, Petra
Petra Bleisch Bouzar is research and teaching assistant in Science of Religion at
University of Fribourg (Switzerland), having studied Science of Religion, Islamic
Studies and Contemporary History in Fribourg and Bern (2005). Her research interests
focus on Muslims in Switzerland, narration as well as religious authority and
apprenticeship. She is currently working on a PhD project entitled “Learning religion –
narratives and apprenticeship among women converted to Islam”.


“Narrative der persönlichen (religiösen) Erfahrung – narratologische Analysen in
der Religionswissenschaft”, in: Brahier, Gabriela / Johannsen, Dirk (Hg.):
Konstruktionsgeschichten. Narrationsbezogene Ansätze in der
Religionsforschung. Würzburg: Ergon, in press.
“„She is Simply Present.‟ – Female Leadership and Informal Authority in a Swiss
Muslim Women's Association”, in: Kalmbach, Hilary / Masooda, Bano (Hrsg.):
Female Islamic Leadership. Leiden: Brill, 2011, 279-300.
Casanova, José
José Casanova is professor at the Department of Sociology at Georgetown University
(USA) and heads the Berkley Center's Program on Globalization, Religion and the
Secular.






“Civil society and religion: retrospective reflections on Catholicism and
prospective reflections on Islam”, in: Social Research, 68, 4, 2001, 1041-1080.
“Religion, European secular identities, and European integration”, in: Eurozine
2004 http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2004-07-29-casanova-en.html (German
version first published in Transit, 27, 2004, 86-106).
Chapter “Religion, Politik und Geschlecht im Katholizismus und im Islam”, in:
idem, Europas Angst vor der Religion, Berlin: Berlin University Press, 2009, 3181.
Chapter “Westliche christliche Säkularisierung und Globalisierung”, in: idem,
Europas Angst vor der Religion, Berlin: Berlin University Press, 2009, 83-119.
“Cosmopolitanism, the clash of civilizations and multiple modernities”, Current
Sociology, 59, 2, 2011, 252-267.
“The secular, secularizations, secularisms”, in Calhoun, Craig / Juergensmeyer,
Mark / Vanantwerpen, Jonathan (eds.), Rethinking Secularism, New York:
Oxford University Press, 2011, 54-74.
Gianni, Matteo
Matteo Gianni holds a doctorate in political science of the University of Geneva where
he is lecturer and researcher. His main fields of research are the normative bases of
citizenship in multicultural societies, racism, and politics of immigration, asylum and
integration in Switzerland.

Vie musulmane en Suisse. Profils identitaires, demandes et perceptions des
musulmans en Suisse / éléments qualitatifs. Berne : Commission Fédérale des
Etrangers (together with M. Schneuwly Purdie, S. Lathion et M. Jenny,
3


published in French and German). 2005, new edition 2010.
http://www.ekm.admin.ch/de/dokumentation/doku/mat_muslime_d.pdf
http://www.ekm.admin.ch/fr/documentation/doku/mat_muslime_f.pdf
“Representing gender, defining Muslims? Identity / Difference Constructions in
the public discourse in Switzerland”, in C. Flood and al. (eds), Islam in the
Plural: Identities, (Self-) Perceptions and Politic, Leiden, Brill Academic
Publishers, 2010 (together with Gaetan Clavien; forthcoming).
Intégration après le vote sur les minarets, in: SGMOIK Bulletin / bulletin
SSMOCI, no. 32, 2011, p. 5-8.
Hafez, Farid
Farid Hafez holds a doctorate in political science of the University of Vienna where he
is a lecturer. His main fields of interest are: islamophobia, especially within Austrian
political parties, Muslim associations in Austria, religion and the public sphere.



(ed.) Jahrbuch für Islamophobieforschung 2011, Deutschland – Österreich –
Schweiz.
Islamophober Populismus. Moschee- und Minarettbauverbote österreichischer
Parlamentsparteien, Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2010.
“Koranverbrennung als fundamentalistischer Akt”, in: Benz, Wolfgang:
Fundamentalismus. Braumüller Verlag. (forthcoming).
Kühle, Lene
Lene Kühle holds a doctorate in Sociology of Religion of the University of Aarhus, DK,
where she is lecturer and researcher. Here main fields of research are sociology of
religion, religious pluralism, religious mouvements and Islam with a special focus on
Muslims in Denmark.



“Excuse me, which radical organization are you a member of? : Reflections on
methods to study highly religious but non-organised Muslims”, in: Ethnic and
Racial Studies, Vol. 34, No. 7, 2011, 1186-1200.
“Prison Chaplaincy from a Scandinavian Perspective”, in: Archives de Sciences
Sociales des Religions, Vol. 56, No. 153, 2011, 123-141.
“Religious Diversity and Pluralism”, in: Journal of Contemporary Religion
(forthcoming)
Lathion, Stéphane
Stéphane Lathion, historian, holds a PhD in European studies. The focus of his
research interest is how Muslims in Switzerland and other Western European countries
organize themselves and develop their own sense of citizenship.


Islam et modernité. IdentitéS entre mairie et mosquée, Paris: Desclée de
Brouwer, 2010.
(ed. with Patrick Haenni) Les minarets de la discorde : éclairage sur un débat
suisse et européen, Gollion: Infolio, 2009
4

Musulmans d'Europe : l'émergence d'une identité citoyenne, Paris: L'Harmattan
2003.
Leuenberger, Susanne
Susanne Leuenberger, PhD candidate at the Institute for the Science of Religion at the
University of Berne, conducts a case study on Swiss converts to Islam. Her research
interests are Islam in Europe, Secularity, Subjectivation, Gender.


(with Petra Bleisch Bouzar), “Doing Islam – Undoing Swissness. Geschlecht,
Kultur und Körper. Konversion zum Islam im 21. Jahrhundert”, in: David
Luginbühl, Franziska Metzger et al. (eds.), Religiöse Grenzziehungen im
öffentlichen Raum – Mechanismen und Strategien von Inklusion und Exklusion
im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, in press (2012).
“Der Heimelige Islam. Konversion als Zwischenraum zur Neuaushandlung
familiärer Bezüge. Eine Einzelfallstudie”, in: Christine Lienemann, Wolfgang
Lienemann (eds.), Religionswechsel, Konfessionswechsel und Bekehrung in
religiös pluralen Gesellschaften. Studien zur Bedeutung der Konversion in
Lebensläufen, Kirchen, Religionsgemeinschaften und Rechtsordnungen.
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, in press (2012).
Moosavi, Leon
Leon Moosavi has just submitted his PhD thesis which he completed in the Sociology
Department of Lancaster University (UK). His thesis examines the experiences of
Muslim converts in Britain in relation to Islamophobia, belonging and „race‟.


“Muslim Converts & Islamophobia in Britain”, in The Sociology of Islam:
Secularism, Economy and Politics (Ithaca Press 2011)
Religion and Identity in Europe (Peter Lang 2011, forthcoming).
Peter, Frank
Frank Peter is Assistant Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the
University of Berne. He obtained his Ph.D. (2002) in Aix-en-Provence and has
published on the history of modern Syria and contemporary European Islam.


Les entrepreneurs de Damas: nation, impérialisme et industrialisation (Paris
2010).
co-ed. with Rafael Ortega, Islamic Movements of Europe: Perspectives on
Public Religion and Islamophobia (London 2012).
See also www.frankpeter.net/writing.php.
Rohrer, Marius
Marius Rohrer (M.Sc. Middle East Politics, SOAS/London, B.A. Islamic and Middle
Eastern Studies/Political Science, Berne) is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Islamic
and Middle Eastern Studies of the University of Berne. His research focuses on the
perception of Muslims in Switzerland. As a founding member of the start-up «Büro
Vieltracht» he promotes constructive ways of dealing with social diversity.
5


with Sabina von Fischer: La diversité religieuse dans les écoles suisses :
problème ou potentiel ?, in: terra cognita, 19, 2011, abrufbar
unter http://www.terra-cognita.ch/d/index.asp (November 2011).
Rohrer, Marius (2011): Basels muslimische
„Schwimmverweigerer“. Dispositivanalyse des Umgangs mit religiöser Diversität
zwischen Wissen und Reg(ul)ierung, in: SGMOIK Bulletin, 33, 2011 (in press).
Salzbrunn, Monika
Monika Salzbrunn holds a full professorship in „Religions, Migration, Diasporas“ at
Lausanne University and leads the French team in the European GEMMA project on
policymaking, gender and migration in the 7th framework program of the European
Union at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris. She is
currently head of the Research Institute for Social Science of Religion (ISSRC) and
Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at Lausanne University.
She wrote her binational PhD dissertation on Transnational Politics of Westafrican
Muslim Migrants in France and Germany. This work was awarded two doctorates: a
French doctorate in Anthropology from the EHESS in Paris and a German doctorate in
Sociology from the University of Bielefeld. Her main research areas are the political
anthropology of festive events, religious networks in Europe and the United States, and
gender issues. Currently, she is working on incorporation processes of the Muslim
population in urban spaces in Switzerland.



co-authored with Yasumasa Sekine, From Community to Commonality: Multiple
Belonging and Street Phenomena in the Era of Reflexive Modernization (Tokyo:
Seijo University, 2011)
co-ed., Faire communauté en société. Dynamiques des appartenances
collectives (Presses Universitaires de Rennes 2010)
co-ed., The Making of World Society. Perspectives from Transnational
Research (tr co-ed., anscript/Transaction Publishers 2008)
Sayyid, Salman
Salman Sayyid is the Director of the Centre of International Centre for Muslim and
Non-Muslim Understanding at the University of South Australia.




A Fundamental Fear: Eurocentrism and the Emergence of Islamism (London
²2003)
co-ed., Thinking through Islamophobia (London 2010)
co-ed., Postcolonial People: South Asians in Britain (London 2006)
forthcoming, Recalling the Caliphate. Decolonisation and World Order (London
2012)
6
Schneuwly-Purdie, Mallory
Mallory Schneuwly Purdie holds a PhD in sociology of religion of the University of
Lausanne where she is a lecturer and researcher. She is particularly interested in
individual and collective expressions of religiosity, effects of migration in the religious
field, religious plurality, and manifestations of religion in the public space.



De l'étranger au musulman. Immigration et intégration de l'islam en Suisse.
Editions universitaires européennes, Sarrebruck 2010.
(ed. with Matteo Gianni and Magali Jenny) Musulmans d'aujourd'hui. Identités
plurielles en Suisse. Genève: Labor et Fides, 2009.
“Le créationnisme islamique. Ancrage scripturaire et réalité polymorphique”, in:
P. Bornet et al. (eds.): Et Dieu créa Darwin: théorie de l'évolution et
créationnisme en Suisse aujourd'hui. Religion et modernité. Genève: Labor et
Fides, 2011, pp.153-169.
Schulze, Reinhard
Reinhard Schulze is professor for Islamic Studies at the University of Berne.




“Islam im öffentlichen Raum oder der Islam als öffentliche Religion”, in: Mariano
Delgado/ Ansgar Jödicke / Guido Vergauwen (eds.), Religion und Öffentlichkeit.
Probleme und Perspektiven, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2009, 141-166.
“Die Verhüllung der Frau in islamischer Tradition”, in: André Holenstein (et al.,
eds.), Zweite Haut. Zur Kulturgeschichte der Kleidung, Bern: Haupt, 2010, 117133.
“Der Islam als politische Religion: eine Kritik normativer Voraussetzungen”, in:
Jan Assmann, Harald Strohm (eds.), Herrscherkult und Heilserwartung,
Paderborn: Fink, 2010, 107-149.
“Islam und Judentum im Angesicht der Protestantisierung der Religionen im 19.
Jahrhundert”, in: Lothar Gall / Dietmar Willoweit (eds.), Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam in the Course of History: Exchange and Conflicts, München:
Oldenbourg, 2011, 139-165.
Sian, Katy
Katy P. Sian is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Leeds, UK, exploring
the semantics of tolerance and (anti-)racism across Europe. She takes a key interest in
debates surrounding racism and ethnicity studies, inter-BrAsian relations, critical Sikh
studies, postcolonialism, poststructuralism, cultural studies and South Asian identity
and diaspora. Her doctoral thesis examined the persistence of Sikh and Muslim conflict
in the context of postcolonial settlement in Britain.



“Understanding Inter-BrAsian Conflict: Sikhs and Muslims in the Diaspora”,
Sikh Formations, Vol. 7, No. 2, August 2011, pp. 111–131
“„Forced‟ Conversions in the British Sikh Diaspora”, South Asian Popular
Culture, Vol. 9, No. 2, July 2011, pp. 115-130
“Don‟t Freak I‟m a Sikh” in S. Sayyid and A. Vakil (eds.), Thinking through
Islamophobia, Hurst: London, 2010
7
Thielmann, Jörn
Jörn Thielmann (Ph.D., Islamic Studies, Ruhr-University Bochum) is Managing Director
of the Erlangen Centre for Islam and Law in Europe EZIRE at the Friedrich-AlexanderUniversity Erlangen-Nuremberg.
Having worked on legal pluralism and Islamic law in Egypt at the CEDEJ in Cairo and
on the political economy in Algeria at the London School of Economics and Political
Science, he is currently doing ethnographic fieldwork on “Islamic fields” in Germany for
his Habilitation.


ed. (with Ala Al-Hamarneh): Islam and Muslims in Germany. Leiden: E.J. Brill,
2008. (Muslim Minorities, 7)
“The Shaping of Islamic Fields in Europe - A Case Study in South-West
Germany”, in Nökel, Sigrid/Tezcan, Levent (eds.), Islam and the New Europe.
Continuities, Changes, Confrontations. Bielefeld: transcript, 2005, pp. 152-177.
(Yearbook of the Sociology of Islam, 6)
Tunger-Zanetti, Andreas
Andreas Tunger-Zanetti holds a PhD in Islamic studies of the University of Freiburg
(Germany). He is coordintor of the Center for Research on Religion of the University of
Lucerne and involved in a research project on the social capital developed by Muslim
youth groups. His main fields of interest are Islam in Switzerland, religion in the public
sphere and the public space, politics concerning religion in Western societies.



Wenn Religionen Häuser bauen. Sakralbauten, Kontroversen und öffentlicher
Raum in der Schweizer Demokratie (together with Martin Baumann), in: Martin
Baumann, Frank Neubert (Hg.), Religionspolitik – Öffentlichkeit – Wissenschaft:
Studien zur Neuformierung von Religion in der Gegenwart, Zürich: Pano 2011,
151-188.
Imamausbildung im europäischen Kontext – das Beispiel Schweiz, in: Bülent
Ucar (Hg.): Imamausbildung in Deutschland. Islamische Theologie im
europäischen Kontext, Osnabrück/Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Osnabrück bei
V&R unipress, 2010, 117-130.
Ansehen und Sichtbarkeit. Religion, Immigration und repräsentative
Sakralbauten in Westeuropa (together with Martin Baumann), in: HerderKorrespondenz, 65. Jg., H. 8, August 2011, 407-409.
Tyrer, David
Dr David Tyrer is a Senior Lecturer and member of the Centre for the study of Crime,
Criminalisation and Social Exclusion at Liverpool John Moores University. His research
interests lie in race, postcoloniality and political theory, and he is currently writing a
monograph on Islamophobia under contract to Pluto Press.


“„Flooding the embankments‟: Race, bio-politics and sovereignty”, in Sayyid, S.
and Vakil, AK (eds.), Thinking Through Islamophobia, London: C. Hurst and
Co., 2011
with Patel, T., Race, Crime and Resistance, London: Sage 2011