Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore how Muslim families in a Danish provincial town practice Islam in the interface between local conditions and transnational relations. In particular, it will focus on the impact of the families’ encounters with Danish institutions and how the transmission of religion may differ between city and province.

Paper long abstract:

While a number of studies have explored the religious beliefs and practices of so-called second generation Muslim immigrants in Europe, little attention has been given to the ways in which their parents use religion to make place in a new social and cultural setting. Contrary to other regional contexts where studies have highlighted e.g. processes of religious syncretism, analyses of Islam among first generation immigrants in Europe tend to prioritize the transnational or global dimensions of religious practice and focus less on how this may also be influenced by the local context.

This paper will explore how Muslim families in a Danish provincial town practice Islam in the interface between local conditions and transnational relations. Comparing the first results from an ongoing research project with previous ethnographic research on religious transmission among Arab families in Copenhagen, the paper will investigate how the parents attempt to transmit religious beliefs and practices to their children in Denmark. In particular, it will focus on the impact of the families' encounters with Danish institutions such as kindergartens and schools, how the transmission of religion may differ between city and province, and the ways in which parents negotiate religious transmission in relation to both local and transnational social contexts. The preliminary analysis shows that, although the parents themselves view their religious beliefs, practices and traditions as continuities in their lives, they are continually reconstructed in relation to the new socio-cultural context in which they are carried out.