Turkish and Moroccan Muslims in Western Europe

By Benjamin Bruce

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (August 25, 2018)

Series: The Sciences Po Series in International Relations and Political Economy

Concentrates on the similar capacity of Turkey and Morocco to intervene in religious affairs as a domain of public policy

From sending imams abroad to financing mosques and Islamic associations, home states play a key role in governing Islam in Western Europe.  Drawing on over one hundred interviews and years of fieldwork, this book employs a comparative perspective that analyzes the foreign religious activities of the two home states with the largest diaspora populations in Europe: Turkey and Morocco. The research shows how these states use religion to promote ties with their citizens and their descendants abroad while also seeking to maintain control over the forms of Islam that develop within the diaspora. The author identifies and explains the internal and foreign political interests that have motivated state actors on both sides of the Mediterranean, ultimately arguing that interstate cooperation in religious affairs has and will continue to have a structural influence on the evolution of Islam in Western Europe.

About the Author

Benjamin Bruce is Research Fellow with the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (El Colef), Mexico.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• The Many Faces of Official Islam in Turkey
• The Makhzen and the Religious Field
• The Development of State Religious Services Abroad
• Creating a National Islam? Partial Governance and Public Policy Instruments
• Exporting Imams
• National Interests in Transnational Muslim Fields
• Conclusion

Reviews

– “Governing Islam Abroad is an authoritative guide to the nuances of transnational religious cooperation. Bruce uses extensive fieldwork to offer a multi-dimensional view of sending states and receiving states. It is a thought-provoking contribution to the debate over what constitutes a country of origin.” (Jonathan Laurence, Professor of Political Science, Boston College, USA)

– “Winner of the Rémy Leveau prize, this study provides a remarkable comparison of the public management of Islam abroad between Turkey, Germany, Morocco and France. Bruce’s exceptional work explores the implications of this new kind of foreign policy and migratory diplomacy, opening up new paths for research in comparative politics and on theories of public governance beyond borders.” (Catherine Wihtol de Wenden, CNRS Senior Researcher Emeritus, CERI, Sciences Po, France)

Source: Palgrave Macmillan