Conceptualizing Islam: Current Approaches

Edited By Frank Peter, Paula Schrode, Ricarda Stegmann

Publisher: Routledge

Publication Date: July 20, 2026

Hardcover: 322 Pages

ISBN: 9781032194738

What does it mean to study “Islam” as an academic object? Conceptualizing Islam: Current Approaches, brings together contemporary perspectives on one of the central questions in the academic study of Islam.” What does it mean to study “Islam” as an academic object?” the volume examines how scholars conceptualize Islam and how these approaches have developed within the study of religion.
Academic debates about how to conceptualize Islam have become increasingly diverse in recent decades. At the same time, Islam has acquired greater visibility in political and social debates, making questions about how it is defined, studied, and represented particularly important. The book explores these developments while encouraging readers to examine the assumptions and categories through which Islam has traditionally been understood.
The volume brings together contributions from scholars working across different disciplines and theoretical traditions. Its chapters engage with subjects including colonialism, conceptual history, postcolonial approaches, Muslim publics, Islam in Europe, sectarianism, racialization, anthropology, discourse theory, and Islamic orthodoxy.
A major concern of the book is the relationship between concepts of Islam and the historical contexts in which they emerge. Several chapters examine how colonial knowledge, European intellectual traditions, and modern political categories have shaped the ways Islam and Muslims have been studied.
The book is not limited to theoretical discussion. Its later chapters demonstrate how different conceptual approaches can be applied to concrete research, including Muslim perspectives on inheritance law in Switzerland, patterns of Islamic orthodoxy, contemporary Sufi practices, charisma and revelation, and the study of Islam through the “discursive tradition” framework. In this way, the volume connects methodological debates with actual research practices in Islamic and religious studies.

About Editors:

Frank Peter is a Research Fellow at the FAU Centre for Islam and Law in Europe in Erlangen, Germany.
His research focuses on Islam in contemporary France, with particular attention to digital Islam and secularism.
His broader interests include the anthropology of Islam, political religion, Orientalism, and Islamophobia.
He is also the author of Secularism without Religion: Islam and the Governing of Muslims in France.

Paula Schrode is Professor of the Study of Religion at the University of Bayreuth.
She specializes in contemporary Islam and the study of religious practices and processes.
Her current research explores the transnational entanglements of Turkish Islam.
She is particularly interested in the activities of Turkish religious NGOs in sub-Saharan Africa.

Ricarda Stegmann is a Lecturer and Senior Researcher in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
Her research focuses on Islam in Europe and contemporary Sufism worldwide.
Her work also draws on discourse theory, colonial history, Orientalism, and postcolonial studies.
She is particularly interested in Islamic identity constructions in Europe and North Africa.

The Muslim Trap: Negotiating Being and Belonging in Turbulent Times
Special Issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies
Volume 49, Issue 14 — 2026

The Muslim Trap: Negotiating Being and Belonging in Turbulent Times is a 2026 special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies, edited by Ajmal Hussain and Alexandra Poli. Bringing together ethnographic research from France, Norway, Spain and the UK, the issue examines how Muslims navigate identity, belonging and everyday life amid growing political polarization and anti-Muslim discourse.
The editors use the idea of the “Muslim trap” to describe the ways Muslims can become reduced to fixed representations of threat, difference or resistance. These representations can make Muslims appear as exceptional or problematic citizens, while overlooking the diversity of their experiences and aspirations. The issue therefore asks what becomes invisible when Muslim life is viewed primarily through the lens of conflict and polarization.
Rather than focusing only on Islamophobia, the contributors examine the ordinary experiences of Muslims in different European cities. Their research explores aspirations, relationships, civic participation and everyday negotiations of belonging. This approach highlights that Muslim lives are not defined solely by encounters with discrimination or state restrictions, but also by creativity, adaptation and the pursuit of ordinary futures.
The special issue looks at Muslim experiences across cities including Birmingham, Boulogne-Billancourt, Ceuta, Madrid, Nice, Oslo and Paris. Cities are treated not simply as settings, but as places where identities and relationships of belonging are actively formed. The contributors examine how Muslims engage with institutions, neighborhoods and civic life while navigating the boundaries between majority and minority identities.
A central argument of the collection is that Muslim agency should not be understood only as resistance to discrimination or state policies. The contributors examine how Muslims create new forms of civic participation, negotiate relationships with institutions and sometimes accept, challenge or reshape existing structures. In doing so, the issue presents Muslim belonging as an active and evolving process rather than a fixed identity.
Taken together, the special issue challenges simplified portrayals of Muslims in contemporary Europe. Its contributors argue for a broader understanding of Muslim agency that recognises both the pressures created by polarization and the diverse ways Muslims build lives, relationships and futures within European societies. The result is a more complex picture of being Muslim and belonging in turbulent times.
What happens when Muslims are continually viewed through the lens of threat, difference or resistance?
This 2026 special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies explores Muslim identity, belonging and everyday life across cities in France, Norway, Spain and the UK, highlighting the diversity of Muslim experiences and forms of agency.

About Editors:

Alexandra Poli is a researcher at the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) and a member of the Centre d’Étude des Mouvements Sociaux (CEMS) at EHESS in Paris. Her research focuses on Muslims in France, Islam, migration, identity, belonging and the social construction of Muslimness. She has conducted research on Muslim communities and urban change, including work on Boulogne-Billancourt.

Dr Ajmal Hussain is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick. His research focuses on urban and cultural sociology, particularly Muslim culture, migration, multiculturalism, racism, and belonging in contemporary Europe. He previously worked as a Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Manchester and holds a PhD from the university.