Notions of ‘ethicization’ of Islam in Europe Reconsidered
Speaker: Ingvild Flaskerud (University of Oslo)
Discussant: Younes Saramifar (VU University Amsterdam)
Date: Monday 28 / 04 / 2025 – digital lecture: 3.00 – 4.30 pm CET
In this online seminar, Ingvild Flaskerud (University of Oslo) reflects on the so-called ‘ethicization’ of Islam in Europe. Based on ethnographic research, she offers some perspectives on the position and formation of virtue ethics, adab, among young Twelver Shia Muslims in Norway.
Representing an alternative to scholastic deliberations on normative ethics, she discusses how the youths’ critical conceptualizations of their faith take place within the structural frameworks of customary rituals and established theological positions while being shaped in response to current public debates on Islam and face-to-face encounters with Muslims and non-Muslims.
This ethnographic approach to ethical formation also highlights some methodological issues, namely the significance of combining textual sources, material culture, embodied practices and interactions, and aesthetic experiences.
Ingvild Flaskerud is research associate at the Faculty of Theology, Oslo University. Her main research interests include contemporary Twelver Shi’ite thought and practice in both Iran and Europe.
Discussant Younes Saramifar is an anthropologist and cultural sociologist. He is currently assistant professor at the History Department, VU University Amsterdam.
