Subtitle: Religion in the Public Sphere in the Middle East and Europe
Author: John L. Esposito, Franois Burgat
Subject: Religious Studies/Political Science
Paper ISBN 0-8135-3198-5
Cloth ISBN 0-8135-3197-7
Pages: 304 pp.
Description: Essays examining Islam in the West as well as the changing relationship between the Islamic world and the West.

In recent years, Islam has become a more visible force, not only in North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, but also in Western Europe and the United States. Greater attention to religious observance has accompanied the creation of new institutions. Religiously inspired social and political movements have proliferated. Only a few decades ago, Muslims were virtually invisible in Europe and America. Today, increased immigration has changed the religious landscape of the West. Mosques and Islamic centers are found in European and American cities and towns. Muslims are visible in nearly every area of social and political life. A list of major Islamic cities and populations today must include not only Cairo, Tunis, Damascus, and Islamabad, but also Paris, London, New York, and Detroit. This demographic and cultural shift requires that we speak not only of the relationship between the traditional Islamic world and the West, but also about Islam in the West. It has also meant that Islam has been obliged to modernize, to grapple with its status as a minority religion in some parts of the world and a majority one in others.