Books in the Religion and Global Politics Series series

There is a long-running debate about whether Saudi Arabia exportation of its highly conservative form of Islam known as Wahhabism has distorted or "corrupted" more moderate forms of Islam around the world. This volume is the first study to explore this question in detail based on social science research.

Drawing from a wide range of archival and secondary Greek, Bulgarian, Ottoman, and Turkish sources, Islam and Nationalism in Modern Greece, 1821-1940 explores the way in which the Muslim populations of Greece were ruled by state authorities from the time of Greece''s political emancipation from the Ottoman Empire in the 1820s until the country''s entrance into the Second World War, in October 1940. The book examines how state rule influenced the development ofthe Muslim population''s collective identity as a minority and affected Muslim relations with the Greek authorities and Orthodox Christians. Greece was the first country in the Balkans to become an independent state and a pioneer in experimenting with minority issues. Greece''s ruling framework and many state administrative measures and patterns would serve as templates in other Christian Orthodox Balkan states with Muslim minorities (Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Cyprus). Muslim religious officials were empowered with authority which they did not have in Ottoman times, and aspects of the Islamic law (Sharia) were incorporated into thestate legal system to be used for Muslim family and property affairs. Religion remained a defining element in the political, social, and cultural life of the post-Ottoman Balkans; Stefanos Katsikas explores the role religious nationalism and public institutions have played in the development andpreservation of religious and ethnic identity. Religion remains a key element of individual and collective identity but only as long as there are strong institutions and the political framework to support and maintain religious diversity.

Sunni Islam has played an ambivalent role in Turkey's Kurdish conflict-both as a conflict resolution tool and as a tool of resistance. Under the Banner of Islam uses Turkey as a case study to understand how religious, ethnic, and national identities converge in ethnic conflicts between co-religionists. Gülay Türkmen asks a question that informs the way we understand religiously homogeneous ethnic conflicts today: Is it possible for religion to actas a resolution tool in these often-violent conflicts?

Salafism is a fundamentalist Sunni vision of Islam. Growing in popularity in many countries, it seeks the purification of Islamic culture and religious renewal through a "de-militantization" of the Islamic corpus. This book examines Salafism in France and looks at how this movement spread from the Gulf to Western countries.