Presented by MEL-net (ICS-UL) and Our Shared Europe (British Council) in cooperation with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon) and the research projects “The Governance of Transnational Islam” (University of Helsinki, Finland) and “IRCHSS-Project History of Islam in Ireland” (University College Cork, Ireland)

Date17-18 of March 2011

VenueInstitute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon (ICS-UL)

Organisation Nina Clara Tiesler, ICS-UL; José Mapril (CRIA) and AbdoolKarim Vakil, King´s College London

For more informationwww.mel-net.ics.ul.pt

AUDITÓRIO SEDAS NUNESInst. de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa (ICS-UL)Av. Prof. Aníbal Bettencourt nº 9, 1600-189 Lisboa

www.ics.ul.pt

The Portugal-based international academic Research Network MEL-net (Muçulmanos em Espaços Lusófonos; Muslims in Portuguese Speaking Areas, hostet at ICS-UL) and the initiative “Our Shared Europe” (British Council) share as one of their major objectives to provide a space for academic and public debate on current issues which relate to Muslims in Europe. After having realized the workshop and symposium on Muslims in Europe and Islamopobia in April 2010, this second joint mission of international scope aims to further contribute to this goal at integrating new collaboration partners, as the Lisbon-based Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the above n amed research projects hosted at the departments of the Study of Religion of the University of Helsinki and the Irish University College Cork.

Research interest and state of the art which relate to Muslim communities in present-day Europe is usually more advanced in those countries which count on a numerically stronger and historically slightly earlier established Muslim presence, such as France, Britain and Germany, countries which also hold a more

PROGRAMMEprominent position in the EU. This conference presents an important opportunity to gain comparative insights in the societal, legal and historical experience of and with Muslim communities in more marginal European countries, such as Finland, Ireland and Portugal. For all three countries, immigration at large is a historically more recent phenomenon then in the core countries, and they present a smaller percentage of Muslim citizens and members of society. And still, all three countries show specific cases, diverse Muslim communities and processes of establishment. The Portuguese example makes this particularly clear, as its Muslim presence must be understood as a postcolonial rather than a recent immigration phenomenon. In Finland, there has been a permanent (but very small) Muslim community since the 1870s (in their fifth generation by now), while the majority of Muslim residents only arrived from the 1990s onwards; the latter being the case of Ireland. In Portugal, again, it is also since the 1990s that its Muslim community experiences a diversification due to immigration.

What are the different historical linkages and experiences with Islam in these countries? Which legal positions, policies and forms of engagements shape the societal experience of and with Muslims?

The conference provides a platform for comparative debate on such similarities and particularities by bringing together experts on Muslims in Finland, Ireland and Portugal.

The speakers from Finland are members of a research project entitled The Governance of Transnational Islam, funded by the Academy of Finland (University of Helsinki), and those from the Republic of Ireland participate in the IRCHSS-Project History of Islam in Ireland (University College Cork). The speakers on Portugal are members of MEL-net, while the discussants are leading and pioneering authors of works on the situation of Muslims in Europe.

Thursday, 17th of March 2011

09h30 WELCOME NOTE Fátima Dias (British Council, Our Shared Europe), Nina Clara Tiesler (MEL-net (ICS-UL) and Tuula Sakaranaho, University of Helsinki 10h00-13h00 PANEL I: MUSLIMS IN FINLANDChair: Oliver Scharbrodt, University College Cork

10h00 Tuomas Martikainen, University of Helsinki The founding of the Islamic Council of Finland: Emancipation and state intervention

10h45 Marja Tiilikainen, University of Helsinki Somali Women and Everyday Islam in the Diaspora 11h30 Coffee Break

11h45 Tuula Sakaranaho, University of Helsinki. The Education of Islam in Finnish Schools: Equality, Integration, Securitization

12h30 Discussants: Jørgen S. Nielsen, University of Copenhagen Sean McLoughlin, University of Leeds 13h00 Lunch Break

14h30-18h15 PANEL II: MUSLIMS IN IRELANDChair: AbdoolKarim Vakil, King’s College London 14h30 Oliver Scharbrodt, University College Cork Researching Islam in Ireland – Some Preliminary Results 15h15 Adil Hussain Khan, University College Cork Concepts of Authority in Irish Islam

16h00 Coffee Break

16h15 Vivian Ibrahim, SOAS, London Integration Policies towards Muslims in a Multicultural Ireland

17h00 Yafa Shanneik, University College Cork Home or Exile – Imagination or Reality? Arab Muslim Women Migrants’ Construction of Identities in Ireland

17h45 Discussants: Jørgen S. Nielsen, University of Copenhagen Sean McLoughlin, University of Leeds

Friday, 18th of March 2011

11h30 Book LaunchN.C. Tiesler, A Morada de Ser. Muçulmanos na Europa e políticas de identidade (The Place of Being. Muslims in Europe and identity politics), Lisbon: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, presented by Prof. Dr. Jørgen S. Nielsen (Centre for European Islamic Thought, University of Copenhagen)

12h15 Lunch 15h00-19h00 PANEL III: MUSLIMS IN PORTUGALChair: Tuomas Martikainen

15h00 AbdoolKarim Vakil, King’s College London Permission to Narrate: Muslims in Portugal

15h45 Luís Bernardo, Humboldt University Berlin Historical legacies and the framing of policy responses to the emergence of Islam in Portugal and Ireland 16h30 Coffee break

16h45 Nina Clara Tiesler, Inst. of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon `The space for political issues is sold out´- Civic engagement and Public Islam in Portugal

17h30 José Mapril, CRIA-ISCTE/ IUL and New University of Lisbon Colonial Legacies: Islamic education and liberal citizenship in Portugal

18h15 Discussants: Jørgen S. Nielsen, University of Copenhagen Sean McLoughlin, University of Leeds 18h45 Closing Remarks Fátima Dias, British Council, Our Shared Europe, Nina Clara Tiesler, MEL-net, ICS-UL Tuula Sakaranaho, University of Helsinki

19h00 End of conference