Current Sociology

This article introduces issues relevant to the presence of Muslims in Europe. While European nations are still in the process of acknowledging the diversity and rich cultural heritages of Muslim communities, Muslims are adjusting to living as minorities within a non-Muslim society. The predominant `us'/`other' dichotomy embedded in historical and political encounters has raised significant issues affecting mutual integration and acceptance. On the one hand, European essentializing of both their own and Muslim cultures has fixed the integration debate in static stereotypes. On the other hand, Muslims in search of social cohesion are increasingly attracted to the concept of a fixed, homogeneous supranational ummah. However, both majority and minority communities are undergoing transformation and restructuring that is centred around the negotiation of new composite identities, changing family patterns and relationships, political activism and the fight against social exclusion.

Women are often at the centre of nationalist discourses in Muslim countries. They are used to symbolize both the progressive aspirations of the secular elite and cultural authenticity expressed in Islamic terms. As such, they are central to secular as well as religious nationalism. The impact of western images on the creation of women as symbols of authenticity and cultural resistance within Islamic discourses is apparent. Western views, including those on women, are often regarded as politically or culturally suspect. In Islamism, women are regarded as the embodiment of Islamic originality and as such they have great symbolic value in distinguishing Muslim societies from the West. This conceptual framework creates opportunities for women to acquire a more positive and esteemed identity within both Muslim and western social contexts.

The Muslim presence in Britain has over the past decade become a significant factor in political, social and cultural spheres. There are a number of important imperatives central to the presence of Muslims in Britain within the context of Muslim social and political mobilization and state responses. It would appear that a situation of conflict exists between the Muslim minority in Britain, increasingly becoming concerned about its future, and a secular non-Muslim society. Increasingly, Muslim activism has posed challenges to state policy on issues and areas of importance such as education, religion and political representation. The situation of Muslim communities in Britain can be seen in the context of an ongoing process of accommodation and compromise between minorities and the dominant mainstream. The images of Islam and Muslims in western discourses are also central to any understanding of the presence of Muslims in the broader context of the European Union. The Islamic concept of ummah is equally relevant in the discussion of a Muslim diaspora and Muslim citizenship. The article addresses issues that are central to the ongoing debate about the socioeconomic position and political activism of British Muslims.

Altruism, as a moral and social value demanding responsibility, caring, attachment and a concern for the benefit of the larger society, is a neglected area of sociology. It directly involves individuals' collective identity and affects their behaviour within the context of family and community. Drawing on 75 in-depth interviews with leaders and other members of the British Muslim community, the article addresses the nature, extent and variation of altruistic values among different generations in the British Muslim population both within and outside the family. The research findings suggest that despite the generally strong representation of altruism within Muslim families, the kind of altruism generally found outside the family was often particularistic and directed towards small groups. Among some second- and third-generation Muslims, however, a more transcendental adherence to Islamic identity promises a more universalistic intercommunity approach. In addition, exposure to more liberal and individualistic western values has affected younger generations of Muslims and put some strains on relation-ships with their parents.

This article is based on research conducted at a Moroccan mosque and within Islamic schools in the Netherlands. The central question of the study is: how can we appreciate the separate forms of education and assistance for children provided by Muslims? Will they lead to segregation and isolation from society at large or are they in fact a strategy that is aimed towards integration, as the people involved themselves argue? By viewing such separate forms of education and assistance as a symbolic struggle and investigating how they work in the attempt of Muslims to wrest confirmation and recognition for themselves in Dutch society, it becomes clear why in `Dutch Islam' great emphasis is placed on social responsibility, particularly that which is aimed at young people and their education, and why Muslims see their own forms of education as the road to integration.

Based on scholarly literature and two recent studies, this article first describes gender dynamics and fathering as they have evolved in Morocco in the premigration period and among Moroccan families since migration to the Netherlands. The article then presents data about ideals and practices of fathering among contemporary Moroccan migrants in contrast to Dutch families. While in the Netherlands the traditional ideal of role division has given way to ideals of egalitarian role sharing, Moroccans continue to adhere to an ideology of motherhood situated within a patriarchal context. However, in the actual practice of mothering and fathering the gap between Dutch and Moroccan families appears not to be as wide as dominant ideologies suggest. We have found that, in both groups, mothers are the primary caretakers and that the increasing power of Moroccan mothers is as yet hidden from the public eye.

This article examines the contribution of Denmark's news media to the formation of intolerant opinions about ethnic minorities. Based on an empirical investigation using discourse analysis and a narrative approach to the contents of the daily news flow on ethnic affairs in the dominant news media, the article argues that the media have played an important role in the (re)production of a prejudiced discourse on ethnic minorities. In this discursive process, Muslim minorities have been the primary victims. In the absence of social interaction between the majority population and minority groups, the cognitive frame of reference through which members of the ethnic majority premise their arguments is largely based on mental models of ethnic events that are constituted by media-mediated themes and topics on minority issues in the daily news flow of the national media.