Religion in Fortress Europe: Perspectives on Belief, Citizenship and Identity in a Time of Polarized Politics [Paperback]

How does religion maintain or challenge discourses on national identity? What are the roles that religion plays on all sides  from Islamophobia of the radical right to the Christian alliances on both sides of the Atlantic, to the Islamic beliefs and practices of European citizens as well as migrant communities  in the constitution of Fortress Europe? Are there any alliances shaping between belief and unbelief on either side of the battle for the future of Europe?
These questions and more motivate the chapters in this timely interdisciplinary collection, with contributions focusing on diverse contexts throughout Europe involving a broad range of religious identifications and actors.

Morteza Hashemiis Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham, UK.

Christopher R. Cotteris Staff Tutor (Lecturer) in Sociology and Religious Studies at the Open University, UK.

A rich and insightful volume that sheds light on religious marginalization and its various stakeholders in 21st-century Europe, urging introspection into the national identities, cultural assumptions and social infrastructures that allow for perpetuated othering and exclusion in liberal democracies. Carol Ferrara, Anthropologist and Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing Communication, Emerson College, USA

This timely collection gives the field a rich account of the lived experience of believers and religious community members across contemporary Europe. Insight is provided by detailed case studies covering the British, Swiss, Finnish, Dutch and German contexts among others. These are used to generate theories crucial for our understanding of current controversies, and the struggles and achievements of those within marginalized religious communities across Europe. At a time when migration policies are increasingly exclusive or punitive towards particular minority groups, this work will be compulsory reading for scholars and studenlS+