Contemporary Islamic Orientations and Transnational Muslim Organisations in the West

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of the major contemporary social and discursive orientations among Western Muslims and major transnational Muslim organisations operating in the West. This chapter highlights the diversity of these organisations along with an examination of their ideological underpinnings. While it makes reference to a number of studies that have constructed various typologies of contemporary Islamic trends from both discursive and sociological, theoretical, and methodological vantage points, this chapter offers a detailed examination of two influential organisations, the Hizmet Movement (HM) and the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), that represent different types of organisations on the Islamic spectrum. These case studies provide insights into two organisations that can be contrasted by their respective emphasis on a bottom-up approach to social relations and cohesion within the Western context versus a more top-down focus on the Western Muslim adherence to jurisprudential and theologically oriented norms. They also showcase the different approaches to Islam in the West that emerge as a result of different external/foreign influences and agendas.