Anthropology of Islamic Knowledge - SIPA

Turkish Muslims and their Islamic communities the dominant factor in the making of
Islam in Germany.
Various other factors in addition to religious authority formation cause the
diversification of religious interpretations among Muslims in Europe; such as the country
of origin, sect, and school of law. However, the Gülen, Süleymanlı, and Kaplan
communities have all these dimensions in common. They are all originated or established
by individuals from Turkey, Sunni, and they follow predominantly Hanefi school of law.
I choose these three communities because the contrast in their religious authority
illustrates the production of coherence in their civil, mystical, and revolutionary forms of
Islam. These forms represent the most adaptive, stagnant, to most resistant interpretations
of Turkish Islam in Europe respectively.
The comparison of these three communities and their forms of Islam leads to two
major points. Firstly, religious authority is constructed through the inter-determination of
religious assertions, social organization, and media during the production of religious
knowledge in Islamic communities. I will introduce how each of these dimensions
separately influences the others and then how they inter-determine one another in the
major activity of religious knowledge production and transmission in each Islamic
community. Secondly, whether the “outcome” of Islamic reinterpretation helps the
community to adapt to the European setting or not depends on how their religious authority
is constructed. I will compare how religious authorities of these communities approach to
interfaith dialogue and jihad to examine the (mal)adaptation of Islam in Europe.
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