This pioneering volume defines the contours of the emerging engagements of Muslim women scholars from around the world with the authoritative interpretive traditions of Islam, classical and contemporary. Muslima theology, here broadly defined to encompass a range of interpretive strategies and perspectives arising from multiple social locations, interrogates Islamic scripture and other forms of religious discourse to empower Muslim women of faith to speak for themselves in the interests of gender justice. Contributions provide an overview of the field at this juncture-ranging from pioneering Muslim scriptural feminism to detailed analyses of legal and mystical texts by a new international cohort of Muslim women academics and activists. Contemporary female Muslim "constructivist" approaches articulate concerns with diversity, including race and religious pluralism, paralleling developments in womanist and mujerista readings of religious texts.

Following 9/11 and the growth of religiously legitimated violence in Islamic countries, the focus of public discussion moved to imams and teachers of religion as actors supporting Muslim isolation and the lack of willingness to integrate - imams became central figures in the debate on Islam. With great enthusiasm, politicians discovered them to be the scapegoats of a failed integration of Muslims in Europe. Integrated imams trained in Europe were to promote Muslim integration, prevent violence, resolve contradictions between society and Muslims and further Islamic enlightenment. With this objective an attempt was made, on the one hand, to rediscover the existing institutions for imam training in Balkan states and, on the other hand, to establish new educational institutions at European universities to train Europe-compliant imams. Due to their central role in the lives of Muslims, the training of imams and teachers of religion is given an important role in the process of Muslim integration.

This volume is a result of the conference "Islamic Textbooks and Curricula in South East Europe" held in Sarajevo, 21st to 25th October 2010. One of the aims of the conference was to critically assess the existing curricula and textbooks for Muslim education in Europe and to discuss the directions textbook and curricular development needs to take in the near term. This critical assessment and visioning took place in dialogue with the experiences of long-established churches and religious communities. The conference concluded that an emphasis on the European characteristics of Islam is essential in religious education.

The authors of this volume examine theory and practice regarding past and present roles of Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious education in nurturing tolerance, interpreted as mutual respect for and recognition of other groups, in Eastern (Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and Romania) and Western (Finland, Germany, Italy, Latvia and Spain) Europe, Israel, Nigeria and Uzbekistan. They also explore potential roles of religion and exclusivism in fostering (Islamic state, NGOs, etc.), but also averting (Islamic legal theory, authority, Sufism, etc.) radicalization, and of secular states in allowing, but also banning minority religious education in public schools.With contributions from Friedrich Schweitzer, Martin Rothgangel, Gerhard Langer, Daniela Stan, Arto Kallioniemi, Juan Ferreiro Galguera, Maria Chiara Giorda, Rossana M. Salerno, Viorica Goras-Postica, Constantin Iulian Damian, Valentin Ilie, Dzintra Ilisko, Ayman Agbaria, Zilola Khalilova, Raid al-Daghistani, Osman Tastan, Moshe Ma'oz, Adriana Cupcea, Muhamed Ali, Rudiger Lohlker and Dele Ashiru. The Editors Ednan Aslan is the Chair of Islamic Theological studies at the University of Vienna where he is a Professor for Islamic Education. Margaret Rausch is scholar, researcher and university instructor in the field of Islamic and Religious Studies.

The scholarly contributors to this volume investigate various means to stimulate and facilitate reflection on new social relations while clarifying the contradictions between religious and social affiliation from different perspectives and experiences. They explore hindrances whose removal could enable Muslim children and youth to pursue equal participation in political and social life, and the ways that education could facilitate this process.

Through history, Islam was the dominant religion and source of legitimation for ruling entities in diverse contexts where cultures and religions thrived in harmony. Today, the presence of Muslims as citizens in secular societies poses challenges, either by belonging to minorities in Western countries with long secular traditions or by comprising minority or majority populations in post-communist East European and Central Asian societies, where secular values are being revised. As Muslims reconceive the role of religion in their lives in those contexts, Islamic education acquires importance. It assists the young, especially adolescents, in learning to identify more fully with local realities with the intention of building sense of inner connectedness through which they may truly take part in and be of service to society. The contributors to this volume explore how the religious and secular, as well as the traditional and modern intersect in Islamic educational institutions that benefit Muslims and their societies by averting extremism and promoting cohesion.

Die Wirkungen der sozialen Medien sind besonders in Bezug auf das religiöse Engagement und die religiösen Praktiken junger Menschen zu beobachten – die heute unter Begriffen wie „Internetgeneration“, „Mediengeneration“ oder „Digital Natives“ zusammengefasst werden. Online-Medien üben großen Einfluss auf ihr Leben, ihr Weltverständnis, ihre religiösen Orientierungen und Handlungen aus. Ihre Identitätskonstruktionen, ihre kulturellen und religiösen Orientierungen sind aufs Engste mit sozialen Medien verflochten. Genau hier setzte die vorliegende Studie mit der Frage an, welche subjektiven Konsequenzen die Interaktion im Social Web für religiöse Orientierungen, Praktiken und Selbstentwürfe muslimischer Jugendlicher in Österreich hat. Dabei standen die Zusammenhänge zwischen Mediennutzung, medialen Islambildern und gelebter Religiosität im Mittelpunkt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen einerseits, dass der Umgang mit Social Media objek­tive Möglichkeitsräume schafft, die mit einer Erweiterung individueller Handlungsspielräume einhergehen können, wobei religiöse Autorität zunehmend hinterfragt wird. Andererseits geht aus der Studie ebenfalls hervor, dass die Nutzung digitaler Medien auch zur Verengung individueller religiöser Orientierungen führen kann.

Whether formally incorporated into curriculum and teacher training or informally integrated in contexts such as state or NGO initiatives dealing with resolving social, ethnic, and religious conflicts, peace education is increasingly recognized as a critical component in addressing violence in contemporary plural societies. Peace education can constructively undertake a reframing of historical narratives while inspiring practical community activities. An important, but insufficiently studied and theorized aspect of peace education is the role of religion. The challenge to peace education in today's globalized, diverse, mobile, and religiously pluralistic world is to be able to take both complex global and distinctive local situations into account. The contributions to this integrative collection of essays provide exactly these local and global perspectives on the state of peace education and its relationship to religion across pedagogy and curriculum, state policies, and activism within societies on the front lines of resolving internal conflicts, whether historical or recent, that often reflect aspects of religious identities.

This volume features chapters by international experts in education, sociology, and theology who consider a range of challenges faced by educators in primary and secondary schools that are becoming increasingly diverse in terms of the ethnic and religious backgrounds of pupils. From the non-religious, to the refugee, to student fundamentalism and even radicalization -these multiple, fresh approaches analyze the dynamics of the changing pedagogical landscape in an age of ever increasing globalization and cultural plurality. Today's classrooms are often the most crucial spaces where children and adolescents encounter new cultural, religious, and other worldviews. Increasingly, teachers are called on to empower their pupils with the tools and competencies necessary to reflect on and process this plurality in ways that are productive for their intellectual growth and moral maturation. Regional case studies provide extensive data while offering insights into developments in school settings across Europe, in Turkey, and in the United States. In addition, a number of the contributions address the delivery, content, and policies of Islamic Religious Education in European contexts, the educational strategies employed in multi-religious societies, and interreligious dialogue in schools, whether intentional or spontaneous.

Although it is rarely given sufficient consideration in either scholarly or political debates, early childhood education plays a crucial role in the integration process of young immigrants in European countries, since it not only enables the children to be integrated into society, both linguistically and culturally, but it also provides their parents with the opportunity, through their children, to view the society more directly and to reflect on their own values in the encounter, or to potentially seek new orientations. The quality of young migrants' educational achievements, which have repeatedly caused current political debates in European countries, should not be considered independently of the elementary education measures since they are very closely related. Prof. Dr. Ednan Aslan is Chair of Islamic Religious Education at the Institute for Islamic Theological Studies at the University of Vienna.

This multidisciplinary volume unites research on diverse aspects of Jewish-Muslim relations, exchanges and coexistence across time including the Abrahamic tradition enigma, Jews in the Qur'an and Hadith, Ibn al-'Arabi and the Kabala, comparative feminist theology, Jews, Christians, Muslims and the Gospel of Barnabas, harmonizing religion and philosophy in Andalusia, Jews and Muslims in medieval Christian Spain, Israeli Jews and Muslim and Christian Arabs, Jewish-Muslim coexistence on Cyprus, Muslim-Jewish dialogues in Berlin and Barcelona, Jewish-Christian-Muslim trialogues and teleology, Jewish and Muslim dietary laws, and Jewish and Muslim integration in Switzerland and Germany.

Dieser multidisziplinäre Band vereint Forschungsarbeiten zu verschiedenen Aspekten der jüdisch-muslimischen Beziehungen, des Austauschs und der Koexistenz im Laufe der Zeit, darunter das Rätsel der abrahamitischen Tradition, Juden im Koran und im Hadith, Ibn al-'Arabi und die Kabbala, vergleichende feministische Theologie, Juden, Christen, Muslime und das Barnabas-Evangelium, die Harmonisierung von Religion und Philosophie in Andalusien, Juden und Muslime im christlichen Spanien des Mittelalters, israelische Juden und muslimische und christliche Araber, die jüdisch-muslimische Koexistenz auf Zypern, muslimisch-jüdische Dialoge in Berlin und Barcelona, jüdisch-christlich-muslimische Triloge und Teleologie, jüdische und muslimische Speisegesetze sowie jüdische und muslimische Integration in der Schweiz und in Deutschland.

Religious and ethnic diversity have become crucial and pressing concerns in Europe: in particular, the presence of Muslims, their integration, citizenship, and how to deal with the influx of refugees. Can we draw on the resources of religions and their leaders for models of peaceful coexistence or do religious identities constitute obstacles to cooperation and unity? This volume treats "Islam, Religions, and Pluralism in Europe" based on a 2014 conference in Montenegro. Experts analyze Islam and Muslim issues as well as Christian perspectives and state social policies. Case studies drawn from Western and Eastern Europe including the Balkans, constructively review and interrogate diverse theological, philosophical, pedagogical, legal, and political models and strategies that deal with pluralism.

In this volume, the authors attempt to speak freely about the potential in religions both for violence and peace. I am confident that many impulses from this work will also impact the direction of churches and other religious communities, such that religions, all together, will try to mobilize the members of their communities to actively contribute to world peace. In this way, religions will be perceived as part of the solution for world peace, enabling them to move beyond the stigma of their damaged reputations.

In seiner Funktion als religioeser Fuhrer wird vom Imam erwartet, Antworten auf jede Art von in der islamischen Gemeinschaft auftretenden Problemen zu geben. Entsprechend wichtig ist seine Vorbereitung auf diese neue Mission. Nun haben die meisten Imame ihre theologische Ausbildung in ihrer Heimat erhalten und wurden vor allem auf Grund ihrer theologischen und seelsorgerischen Kenntnisse aus dem Ausland rekrutiert. Folglich verfugt ein Imam in den wenigsten Fallen uber eine psychosoziale Ausbildung bzw. entsprechende Kompetenzen - allein aufgrund des gemeinsamen religioes-kulturellen Hintergrundes sind ihm die Anliegen der Mitglieder seiner Gemeinde groesstenteils vertraut, sodass er ihnen eine umfangreiche Beratung anbieten kann. Freilich steht diesem sozialen Reifeprozess eine Reihe von Problemen im Weg, etwa fehlende Deutschkenntnisse oder der Mangel an Fachkenntnissen uber die Lebensverhaltnisse von Kindern und Jugendlichen im Westen, denen der Imam in der Vermittlung von Wissen uber kulturelle und religioese Themen vorurteils- und wertfrei begegnen soll. Kein Land kann auf Dauer die religioesen Belange seiner BurgerInnen als eine Angelegenheit betrachten, deren Betreuung im Ausland wahrgenommen wird. Das war auch der Grund, dass in Europa heute verschiedene Massnahmen hinsichtlich der Ausbildung der Imame und SeelsorgerInnen debattiert werden. Auch in OEsterreich wird der Ausbildung der Imame und SeelsorgerInnen grosser Wert beigemessen, um sicherzustellen, dass die Ausbildung dieser Berufsgruppe in nachster Zukunft auf eine gute Grundlage gestellt werden kann. Diese Arbeit erhebt den Anspruch, die Moeglichkeiten einer derartigen Ausbildung an den staatlichen Universitaten, die eine entscheidende Voraussetzung fur die Kontextualisierung des Islam in unserem Lande ist, aufzuzeigen.

Die vorliegende Studie nahert sich den Lebenswelten radikalisierter Personen und analysiert das vielschichtige Phanomen mittels Biografieforschung.Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass es sich bei islamistischer Radikalisierung um einen aktiven Prozess der Auseinandersetzung des Individuums mit einer bestimmten islamischen Theologie, samt ihren Normen und Wertvorstellungen, handelt. Die betroffenen Individuen radikalisieren sich dabei nicht isoliert, sondern sind eingebettet in ein soziales Umfeld, das in dieser Studie als radikales Milieu bezeichnet wird.