Islam in Britain and Denmark: Deterritorialized Identity and Reterritorialized Agendas

Abstract

This article is based on case studies of two Muslim groups: Hizb ut-Tahrir and Muslimer i Dialog (Muslims in Dialogue). In the article, basic elements in the ideology and activities of the Islamist and fundamentalist Hizb ut-Tahrir are outlined and the Danish and British sections of the group are compared in terms of agendas, members and image. Furthermore, a comparison between the Danish section of Hizb ut-Tahrir and another and more recent Danish Muslim organization called Muslimer i Dialog is made. In the article, it is argued that there are distinctive differences between the national sections of Hizb ut-Tahrir which indicate that the group is not entirely immune to national agendas (media, political or otherwise). Based on the comparison between the Danish Hizb ut-Tahrir and Muslimer i Dialog, it is also argued that a new understanding of the relation between religious, ethnic and national identity is evolving. Groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir and Muslimer i Dialog seem to thrive and recruit new members on a combination of a transnational, deterritorialized understanding of the Muslim religious community and reterritorialized agendas.

Continuity or regime change in the Netherlands: Consociationalism in a deterritorialized and post-secular world

“…The groups are turning to an Islam that is detached from the migrant generations’ Muslim homelands, just as they construct transnational identities and networks. (Sinclair, 2008: 51)In a similar vein, Roy speaks tellingly of the ‘modernity of an archaic way of thinking’, when he discusses neofundamentalism of both the Muslim and Christian variety (2004: 232). Traditionalist religion is rooted in a community, in a traditional cultural setting, in established rituals and habits.…”

“…The groups are turning to an Islam that is detached from the migrant generations’ Muslim homelands, just as they construct transnational identities and networks. (Sinclair, 2008: 51)…”