Radical and Terrorist Muslims in Secular Europe, 1990-2019

Wednesday Forum – 16 October 2019

The fast growing population of migrant workers in Europe became only known as a Muslim identity group after the Rushdie Affair of 1990. Through spectacular terrorist actions they became often the emblem of their religion. This talk will present their image through a Dutch diary of the period February-September 2019. It shows that radicalism is a very difficult term: even terrorists who were agents of crude killings prove to be of weak religious motivation and to show a history of petty crimes and non-Islamic behaviour. The terrorist acts of this minority makes the position of Islam in European society very weak, although this new style of Western Islam is in fact very promising also for global Islam.

About the speaker

Prof. Karel Steenbrink (b. 1942) is a researcher of Islam and Muslim-Christian relations in Indonesia since 1970. He taught at the State Academy of Islamic Studies (IAIN now UIN) between 1980-1988, later in Montreal (McGill), Leiden and Utrecht. For Islam in Europe he concentrated on the impact of the Gülen Movement.

Look at the full poster of this event here.