Making Islam Work: Islamic Authority Among Muslims in Western Europe
Who speaks for Islam? Religious authority hinges on persuasiveness and addresses issues of truthfulness, authenticity, legitimacy, trust, and ethics within the realm of religious matters.
Date: Monday, 23 / 06 / 2025 – digital lecture: 3.00 – 4.30 pm CET
While Islamic authority may seem like an inherent status for Muslim scholars, tied to their knowledge of religious sources, Sunier argues that the process of establishing Islamic authority is a continuous dynamic.
His book Making Islam Work: Islamic Authority Among Muslims in Western Europe (Brill) analyses authority as a social and relational practice that extends beyond theological proficiency and personal status, even encompassing objects, activities, and events. Moreover, he contends that the development of Islamic landscapes in Europe is intricately linked to the evolution of Islamic authority.
In this talk, he will explore the diverse ways in which Islamic authority is constituted, with a specific emphasis on the role of ‘ordinary’ Muslims. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted among Muslims in Western Europe from the mid-1980s to 2020, he aims to shed light on the multifaceted dynamics of Islamic authority in this context.
Thijl Sunier is professor emeritus (VU University Amsterdam) and president of the Netherlands Interuniversity School for Islamic Studies (NISIS). His work focuses on the study of migrants in Europe, Turkey and the study of Islamic religious authority.
Discussant: Dominik Müller (University of Zürich)..
