White Islam: A New Religion for Europeans

Project Information

WhIsE

Grant agreement ID: 892075

DOI

10.3030/892075

Project closed

EC signature date 3 April 2020

Start date 1 September 2021

End date 1 September 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 271 052,16

EU contribution

€ 271 052,16

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - WhIsE (White Islam: A New Religion for Europeans)

Reporting period: 2023-06-01 to 2024-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The WhIsE project examined the complex and non-linear relationship between European conservatism and Islamic intellectual heritage. Public debates in recent years have often portrayed this relationship as one of antagonism, with pro-Christian and anti-Islamic rhetoric used to define political identities and reinforce exclusivist agendas. However, the project showed that this perspective is too limited: alongside conflict, there are also shared concerns and intellectual encounters that connect conservative and Muslim traditions in Europe.

This research is important for society because it helps explain how religious and political narratives shape contemporary debates on identity, belonging, and Europe’s cultural future. By situating Muslim intellectual voices within broader European conversations, the project contributes to a more balanced understanding of how inclusion and exclusion are negotiated, and how different communities position themselves in relation to dominant cultural frameworks.

The project’s main objectives were:

1. To analyse where and how Islamic principles intersect with European conservative thought.
2. To study the Murabitun World Movement, an international network of Muslim converts, as a case of reformulating European intellectual traditions through Islamic and decolonial perspectives.
3. To advance a more nuanced view of the relationship between Muslim communities and political camps in Europe.

Conclusions of the action:
The project demonstrated that the relationship between Islam and European conservatism cannot be reduced to opposition. By tracing the intellectual production of the Murabitun network, it highlighted how European and Muslim traditions sometimes converge in their critiques of modernity, cultural change, and social order. These findings underline the need to move beyond simplistic narratives of conflict and instead recognise the complex, transnational interactions that shape Europe’s religious and political landscape today.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

One of the core objectives of the project was to document, archive, and analyse the intellectual output of the Murabitun Movement. A key result is the creation of an extensive reference database covering the writings and publications of the Movement from the 1960s to the 2010s. This database includes books, articles, videos, newspapers, and online publications, and allows for tracing the evolution of political thought across several branches in Europe, as well as in the United States, Mexico, and South Africa.

The findings were disseminated in multiple academic settings: two presentations at the host university, one presentation at the home university in Amsterdam, four major international conferences, and two workshops organised by the PI. The research outputs include three peer-reviewed articles and one book chapter, all available in Open Access.

Beyond academia, an important dimension of the project has been communication with policymakers, civil society organisations, and the wider public. Project deliverables in this area include four policy papers, a closed-door event for policymakers, and ten outreach activities such as radio interviews and invited lectures. The PI also contributed to capacity-building by organising a workshop on digital research methods.

Finally, the project has contributed to strengthening the PI’s academic profile and career trajectory. The PI acquired new expertise in digital data analysis, project management, and PhD supervision.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project has advanced the state of the art by documenting and analysing previously overlooked intellectual traditions linking European conservatism and Muslim communities. It has created new empirical resources, such as a reference database of publications, and contributed original insights into how different traditions of critique intersect in transnational contexts.

By the end of the project, the expected results include a set of open-access publications, policy papers, and outreach activities that make the findings accessible to both academic and non-academic audiences. These outputs ensure the long-term usability of the data and provide a foundation for further research and teaching.

The potential impacts are both scholarly and societal. Academically, the project broadens understanding of religious and political thought in Europe by moving beyond simplified narratives of conflict. Societally, it offers a more nuanced perspective on actors engaged in shaping debates on identity, belonging, and democracy. This knowledge supports policymakers, civil society, and the wider public in addressing questions of social cohesion, inclusion, and pluralism in contemporary Europe.

A minaret of the the Great Mosque of Granada (Spain)