ABSTRACT
It is an intriguing question whether there can be a national Islam. Students of religion tend to divide into two groups. One group looks at the religion and wonders what the implications of its main claims are and how these are taken up by its followers. The other criticizes this approach for reifying the religion, and looks instead at the practices of the believers themselves. This is where the notion of a national Islam looks plausible, since on the latter view it is a matter of studying what Muslims in a particular region actually do. There are huge differences between the practices of different Muslims, so it might look more sensible to investigate those ways of behaving as opposed to the official list of beliefs from which they emerge. This issue is of more than just theoretical interest since many leaders of the Muslim community call on their members to work within the area in which they find themselves and create an American Islam, or a European Islam, for instance. The point here, and it is an important point, is that many Muslims in these areas are citizens, or will become citizens, and they need to address the issue of how they are going to live in their new countries and societies. Ideally they ought to act as ordinary citizens and participate widely in all areas of local life, since only in this way will they be real members of the polity and effective in expressing their wishes and encouraging support for their views. They should not look back to where they came from, if they originated elsewhere, and if they are local converts they should not look to an idealized foreign lifestyle as their model to be followed. They need to start the hard and protracted policy of negotiating an identity whereby Muslims maintain their approach to how to be a Muslim while becoming full and active members of the societies of which they are now members.
