“Nilüfer Göle is brilliant and perceptive; her book is utterly engrossing.”
— Orhan Pamuk, Nobel-Prize winning author of My Name is Red and Snow
“Turkish sociologist Nilüfer Göle authors Islam in Europe: The Lure of Fundamentalism and the Allure of Cosmopolitanism, out in April from Markus Wiener. Göle, an authority on modern Muslim women, writes an engaging yet scholarly tribute to those European Muslims, particularly women, who participate in modern society and still uphold their Muslim values. Though a work in translation, the writing and diction are seamless. ”
— Publishers Weekly
“The Turkish-born sociologist Nilüfer Göle[‘s] … latest book, an essay with the original French title ‘Interpénétrations: L’Islam et l’Europe,’ first published in 2005, was issued in an updated English version last year by Markus Wiener Publishers; as the title for the English edition, translator Steven Rendall and the publisher chose the phrase Islam in Europe: The Lure of Fundamentalism and the Allure of Cosmopolitanism. In a somewhat fragmentary way, the author claims for young educated Muslims in Europe to be a part of this continent, although – or maybe because – Islam with its own value system is a basic element of their identity. The attacks of 9/11 and the subsequent debate were a decisive turning point in the consciousness of Muslims, who realized that they had to find a workable arrangement with Western modernity. The word ‘Interpénétrations’ in the original title was meant to show the non-Muslim majority in the most important European countries that they could no longer continue to ignore the fact that Islam had become part of their civil societies and that, instead, they would have to come to an arrangement with Muslims living among them. Moreover, they would have to accept Muslims as European citizens with their own values and opinions that differ from those shaped by Christianity as well as those of secular-minded Europeans.
“A main theme of Göle’s essay is the difficulty for Europeans to define themselves and the European Union as a pluralistic project that includes Islam in a modern interpretation. Europeans need to rid themselves of the thought, promoted by Samuel Huntington’s theory of a ‘clash of civilizations,’ that Islamic civilization is a hostile opponent to their own civilization. What is needed is the realization that one can be member of the same civilization, even if one holds on to divergent religious beliefs and value categories. For Göle, the young veil-wearing Muslim women of the third immigrant generation in European cities like Paris or Berlin constitute evidence for her thesis. On the one hand, these women identify with a conservative female role as well as with traditional ethical codes and sexual morals. On the other hand, they opt for a career of their own and pursue university diplomas and academic positions. As Göle sees it, Islam, for a whole generation of young women in Central Europe, as well as in Turkey, is a means of becoming part of modernity and of finding their individual way of life in the world of modern Europe. They confront both the non-Muslim majority in Europe and the traditional Kemalist elites in Turkey with a new understanding of secularization – one that does not intend to hide religious symbols, but instead bring them out into the open, without thereby forcing others to submit to them. In this context, both the ongoing tension between a (self-professed) Islamic-oriented government and the Kemalist elite in Turkey and the European debate about Turkey’s application to join the EU, in Göle’s eyes are equally significant. Indeed, with the help of Göle’s concept of ‘Interpénétrations,’ a ‘Third Way’ between Political Islam and Secularism may be within reach, as may be a Turkey that is a member of a truly multi-religious European Union, in which Islam has long been represented by Muslim immigrants in Western European countries, where they share the public sphere with non-Muslim natives.
“For Göle, the movie Auf der anderen Seite (English title: The Edge of Heaven, 2007) by Fatih Akin, a son of Turkish immigrants in Germany, illustrates how the envisaged interpenetration of Turkish Muslim culture with Western European urban culture can work in practice, and how classic European attitudes can likewise become part of the Turkish value system. However, the best example of a modern European Islam, interpreted as a foundation for a new symbiosis of Islam and Europe, are the young Muslim women mentioned earlier. Although they believe in conservative Islamic values, with many of them wearing a headscarf and adhering to traditional sexual morals, these women, according to Göle, pose the most formidable challenge to radical Islamists, since their way of life is evidence of the fusion of the West and Islam – that is, of their own female individuality and religious spirituality, as well as of Oriental tradition and European modernity. Islamist terrorists are their enemies because the latter deny any possibility of finding an arrangement within Western modernity that does not require giving up their own (‘non-Western’) religion.
“In summary, one can state that Göle’s essay shows, at many levels, what cosmopolitanism amounts to and in which direction lies the future of a Europe where Islam is a basic ingredient. The book is a stimulating read and presents a wealth of new aspects in the debate about the integration of Muslims into European society with its Christian roots and its basis in secularism. What is missing, unfortunately, is a common thread that would connect the various theses discussed – one that would offer a coherent answer to the question of how all these different aspects might be integrated. Nevertheless, Göle’s essay is recommended reading for anyone in search of a dissenting voice to the image of Islam and Muslim immigrants conveyed by such authors as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Oriana Fallaci, and, most recently, the former Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin. Göle’s essay in no way glorifies Islam – least of all of political Islam, which she characterises as a very real danger; instead, she offers the prospect of an Islam that has arrived in the modern world: an Islam that is compatible with European democratic pluralism. ”
— Mohammed Khallouk, Berlin Review of Books
““Nilüfer Göle is a leading sociologist who is as familiar with France as she is with Turkey, and therefore with the sensibilities of their respective citizens. In this book, the fruit of many years’ reading and observation, she traces the civilizational challenges posed by the contemporary encounter between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe. A central question that she asks is whether Europe is an identity or a project, and it is clear that she hopes it is first and foremost the latter. Written with rare insight and generosity of spirit, Göle’s book offers readers a meditation on one way in which people from very different traditions can live together without animus in an interconnected modern world.”
— Talal Asad, CUNY, author of numerous books including On Suicide Bombing and Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity.
“Nilüfer Göle is a force to be reckoned with. Throughout Europe, she is brilliant on television, at panel discussions, and in academic settings. Professor Göle finds that the urbanization of Islam has brought about fundamental changes in the faith, updating and individualizing it. Islam in Europe is losing its collective hold, which drew on traditional values that developed more than a millennium earlier in the desert. In her view … every [terrorist] attack reactivates religious doctrines and redraws the boundaries between Islam as terrorism defines it and the modern world it is condemning.”
— Die Zeit
“Islam is growing faster in Europe than anywhere else in the world. Islam in Europe: The Lure of Fundamentalism and the Allure of Cosmopolitanism looks at the conflicts that have erupted as the Christian-inspired Western culture of Europe has been struck with a rise of Islam throughout the continent. Comparing two worlds, one where Islam faces persecution and where Islam radically lashes back at slights, to one where Muslims embrace their new home in peace and without fear of those around them. The two worlds exist in the same region, and Nilüfer Göle’s research and study makes Islam in Europe a very enticing read that should prove hard to put down. ”
— Midwest Book Review