The Islamic World and Islam in Europe

Abstract

Rethinking the nature of the relationship between Europe and Islam in our own time requires a re-evaluation of perceptions of history. In this chapter the argument is made that Islam is a part of the European civilizational heritage and that as a result of migration in recent decades, a European Islam now exists and can be viewed as the latest expression of a long history of European-Islamic links. The place of Islam in European history has generally been considered in terms of a clash of civilizations and has ignored the possibility of contradictory belief systems within a civilization and positive encounters (see Davies 2006: 203–22).