Paper short abstract:

The paper answers a question regarding Muslims’ ability to maintain their religion in secular Europe. The process of rediscovering what being Muslim means in the new reality shows that Islam resists secularisation because it can still define the social world and shape individual and collective identity.

Paper long abstract:

The presence of Muslims in Europe has become a key political problem as well as a significant research challenge. My paper is a deliberate attempt to answer an important question regarding the struggles about Muslim's ability to maintain their religion and find their place in European secular countries.

Living in multicultural European societies makes Muslims turn to collective identity and think in terms of own race, ethnicity, religion, nation and gender. On the other hand, they cannot remain completely indifferent to increased contacts with other cultures or the processes of individualization, globalization and homogenization of the world. The situation of migration as well as of the settlement in Europe encouraged Muslims to rethink and analyze their customs and identifications. As a result, their way of living in general was put to the test and the question: 'Are my own conception of living, tradition and customs correct?' has arisen. The process of rediscovering what being Muslim means in European reality shows that Islam is still a dynamic force and that modernization does not have to lead to a decline of religion in the society and in the minds of individuals. I argue that one of the most important reasons why Islam resists to the secularization is its power to define social world as well as shape individual and collective identity. It is visible, amongst other, in: (1) availability and importance of Islam and umma - Muslims encounter Islam among family and friends, at school, on the street or by listening to the radio or surfing on the Internet; (2) revival of Islamic belief and life-style - the establishment of mosques, Islamic schools and organizations, political parties and other institutions as well as introducing Islamic law; (3) connection between religion and politics - the issue of Islamic fundamentalism, Rushdie and headscarf affair. The following paper is also an invitation to discuss the future of European Islam - the confrontation between Muslims and the concepts of state-minority relations.