At the Margins of Europe? Muslims in Finland, Ireland and Portugal

Workshop, 17-18 March 2011, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon

Research interest and state of the art which relate to Muslim communities in present-day Europe is usually more advanced in those countries which count on a numerically stronger and historically slightly earlier established Muslim presence, such as France, the UK and Germany, countries which also hold a more prominent position in the EU.

This workshop presented an important opportunity to gain comparative insights in the societal, legal and historical experience of and with Muslim communities in more marginal European countries, such as Finland, Ireland and Portugal. For all three countries, immigration at large is a historically more recent phenomenon then in the core countries, and they present a smaller percentage of Muslim citizens and members of society. And still, all three countries show specific cases, diverse Muslim communities and processes of establishment. The Portuguese example makes this particularly clear, as its Muslim presence must be understood as a postcolonial rather than a recent immigration phenomenon.

In Finland, there has been a permanent (but very small) Muslim community since the 1870s (in their fifth generation by now), while the majority of Muslim residents only arrived from the 1990s onwards; the latter being the case of Ireland. In Portugal, again, it is also since the 1990s that its Muslim community experiences a diversification due to immigration.

What are the different historical linkages and experiences with Islam in these countries? Which legal positions, policies and forms of engagements shape the societal experience of and with Muslims? These were the kind of questions asked in the workshop.

The Portugal-based international academic Research Network MEL-net (Muçulmanos em Espaços Lusófonos; Muslims in Portuguese Speaking Areas, hostet at ICS-UL) and Our Shared Europe share as one of their major objectives to provide a space for academic and public debate on current issues which relate to Muslims in Europe. After having organised the workshop and symposium on Muslims in Europe and Islamopobia in May 2010, this second joint mission of international scope further contributed to this goal at integrating new collaboration partners like the Lisbon-based Gulbenkian Foundation and the research projects “The Governance of Transnational Islam” at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and “IRCHSS-Project History of Islam in Ireland” at the University College Cork, Ireland.