The department of Islam, Politics and Society is part of the Center for Religion and Contemporary Society and conducts research on, and provides education on the social position of Muslims and their views on politics and society. Muslim activists are fighting for a larger and more visible role of religion in the public domain. How do these Muslim activists relate to Western notions of modernity and what alternative visions do they develop for this? This theme is elaborated into issues of human rights, citizenship, gender, economics, identity and cultural politics. Attention is paid to the views of Salafists, Muslim Brothers and more liberal currents in Islam. The research focuses on both Europe and the Middle East. The emphasis of the research is on modern times but the religious concepts are also studied from the source texts.
Chair of the department is prof. dr. Karin van Nieuwkerk.
