ABSTRACT
Current controversies over the construction of purpose-built mosques throughout European cities provide a good standpoint for assessing the position of Muslims in Europe, their social and political status, their rights and, in general, the respect, or lack of it, they enjoy as a group. Widespread resistance to the construction of purpose-built mosques has been imputed to resentment of ‘Islamic exceptionalism’ and to the diffuse suspicion surrounding Islam and the problems it is perceived as raising, from its treatment of women to intolerance towards other ways of life, and from fundamentalism up to terrorism. The opposition to mosque-building is thus interpreted as a resistance to the ‘Islamification’ of Europe. To opponents of mosque-building, Europe would lose its cultural, religious, and political identity if no barriers against the Islamic ‘invasion’ were raised and if this problematic faith were licensed to proselytize from the squares of European cities.
