Religion has become a pressing matter in different fields of multicultural European society, which raises the question as to how best to govern religious diversity. What we argue in this book is that a successful governance of religious diversity necessitates the development of religious literacy. As such, religious literacy can be understood in a variety of ways depending on the particular context. This book draws on different empirical case studies concerning Finland, covering traditional Finnish religious movements and issues pertaining to immigration and the growing ethnic and religious diversity of Finnish society. In doing so, it delves, among other matters, into the field of school education and state policies against radicalization and violence.

The Challenges of Religious Literacy : The Case of Finland

This chapter employs the concept of religious literacy to examine the divorce practices of Finnish Muslims of Somali background and the roles mosques play in issuing religious divorces. Drawing on field-based research, we argue that Finnish Somalis, in their divorce practices, make use of both Islamic and civil state laws, adopting non-binary approach towards both systems. We problematize the essentialist notion of Islamic family law that is posited in opposition to secular state codes, which one often finds in public debates on Islam and family law. We examine, furthermore, how women’s unequal access to divorce (compared to men) in Islamic law works in the Finnish context. In relation to this, we shed light on the complexities of the role and authority of mosques in issuing religious divorces to women when their husbands do not consent. We note that women’s agency and access to divorce are not merely determined by the legal systems but also by the intersecting structures of power relations and resources in their lives. We conclude with some final reflections on the relevance of the concept of religious literacy with regards to our findings.

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Governing Divorce Practices of Somali Finnish Muslims: Does Religious Literacy Matter

Protecting Muslim Minority Women's Human Rights at Divorce: Application of the Protection against Discrimination Guarantee in Norwegian Domestic Law, Private International Law and Human Rights Law

Midlertidig ekteskap er en ekteskapsordning som er inngatt for en begrenset tidsperiode og som er tillatt innenfor sjia-islam, men forbudt i sunni-islam. Ordningen betegnes gjerne som en av hovedforskjellene mellom de to retningene av islam. Til tross for at midlertidig ekteskap anses for a vaere rettmessig innenfor sjia-islamsk rettstradisjon, presenterer flere sjia-muslimer like fullt svaert ambivalente holdninger til denne praksisen og tolker den pa forskjellige mater. Bade oppfatninger av midlertidig ekteskap og den sosialpolitiske iverksettingen av ordningen avhenger blant annet av hvorvidt sjia-islam utgjor en majoritets- eller minoritetsreligion i samfunnet. Denne artikkelen ser naerAÂ­mere pa ulike oppfatninger av midlertidig ekteskap. Variasjoner i bade bruk og tolkninger av midlertidig ekteskap illustrerer pa hvilke mater en religios forordning kan vaere gjenstand for omfattende diskusjon, og pa hvilke mater denne religiose praksisen bade viderefores og fornyes av bade sunni- og sjia-muslimer i minoritets- og majoritetsposisjoner i dag.

Fornying og videreføring av midlertidig ekteskap i sjia-muslimske minoritets- og majoritetsposisjoner

Abstract Muslims are a marginal minority in Poland, but research shows that they are often subject to negative perceptions and hostility from the majority. Orientalist stereotypes about Islam and the people associated with it are widespread and often reproduced in the media. Research from North America and the European Court of Human Rights suggests that such prejudices can affect the adjudication of cases involving Muslims. It may be presumed that Poland is no exception to that, and this assumption was the starting point for our empirical study. To date, there have been no studies on the perception of Muslims and Islam in the Polish legal system. This article presents the results of a qualitative thematic analysis of 57 judicial opinions issued by the common courts in Poland and published online, in which Islam or being Muslim was mentioned. The cases were categorised and texts of the judicial opinions closely analysed (with computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software) to identify recurring themes. The findings of this first exploratory study show that stereotypical representations and the “‘Othering” of Muslims do indeed occur in Polish courts, with some judges repeating Orientalist tropes that have become normalised in Polish society. 

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The “Other” in Court: Islam and Muslims in Polish Judicial Opinions Published Online

This article discusses the relation between civil and religious marriage, at the interface between the state’s legal discourse and the discourses and practices of Norwegian mosques. A central question is what kinds of effects the governance of Islam in Norway has had in the field of marriage. Against the background of political debates on the system of marriage authorization of faith communities, the analysis draws on interviews with public officials and administrative leaders of mosques, the majority of whom are authorized to perform legal marriage. While the Norwegian state concept of marriage authorization is based on a separation of the civil act and the religious act, mosque administrators rather highlight the similarity and continuity between the two. Contrary to state concerns, though, the analysis suggests that the civil marriages have affected the religious, rather than vice versa. What is interesting is that this reasoning actually results in Norwegian marriage certificates replacing or suppressing the Islamic marriage contract, although agreements on mahr (dower) are still made more informally. Thus, our findings suggest that there has been a secularizing effect.

Anja Bredal

Papers

Contesting the Boundaries between Civil and Religious Marriage: State and Mosque Discourse in Pluralistic Norway