ABSTRACT
Although Islam and Muslims in Sweden have received a great deal of interest from both journalists and academics, it is clear that our knowledge is still very limited (Larsson 2004, 2006a). Most studies so far have focused on either organizational structures or institutionalization processes, but few studies have addressed such aspects as internal variations, theological debates, generational differences or secularization processes among people of Muslim cultural background. As Jacques Waardenburg has remarked (2004: 27), scholars of Islam and Muslims in Europe should be more self-critical and focus on what people of Muslim cultural backgrounds actually “think, say and do”, rather than on a vague perception of Islam as an explanatory factor. Although Waardenburg’s observation is painfully correct, my chapter makes no claim to fill this academic void. However, I will address some issues that I think deserve more attention, and hopefully the case of Sweden can stimulate further critical and innovative research on Islam and Muslims in Europe at large.
