Religion in Fortress Europe: Perspectives on Belief, Citizenship, and Identity in a Time of Polarized Politics

Europe at the beginning of the 2020s is rather different from the one emerging from the ashes of the two World Wars. Reactionary politics, Brexit, populism, anti-migration and anti-multiculturalist rhetoric abound - each with their opponents - and combine to produce an image of Fortress Europe, as borders harden in opposition to the ‘others’ perceived in ‘our’ midst. Religion-related histories are frequently drawn upon is these debates, from all sides, with Christianity frequently being constructed as inextricably linked to European identities, and Islam as the radical and problematic outsider. Religion and Nonreligion in Fortress Europe presents a timely and critical exploration of the entanglement of discourses on (anti)multiculturalism, (anti)migration, and national identity with discourses of religion and non-religion. What is the role of religion or its rejection in maintaining or challenging discourses on national identity? What role do religion-related groups play in welcoming or opposing immigration? What are the roles that religion plays on all sides - from anti-Semitism and Islamophobia of the radical right, to the Christian alliances on both sides of the Atlantic, to the Islamic beliefs and practices of migrants? What do non-religion, atheism and agnosticism have to do with the constitution of Fortress Europe? Are there any alliances shaping between belief and unbelief on either side of the battle for the future of Europe? These questions and more motivate are explored in this timely interdisciplinary collection, with contributions focusing on diverse contexts throughout Europe involving a broad range of religious and non-religious identifications and actors. Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 Illustrations 8 Contributors 9 Acknowledgements 11 Part I: Introduction 12 Chapter 1: Introduction: Religion in Fortress Europe 14 Part II Setting the scene 20 Chapter 2: Fortress Europe: Developments of a concept since the 1990s 22 Part III: Case studies 40 Chapter 3: Multicultural anxieties in England: Schooling liberalism and the problem of religious expression 42 Chapter 4: Philanthropic hyphenated identity: Shia Pakistani–Scottish health activism in Scotland 59 Chapter 5: An embedded minority: Young Alevis in Germany and their search for identity 72 Chapter 6: ‘Christian culture’ and its others: Culturalized religion, Islam and confessional Christianity in the Netherlands 91 Chapter 7: Shaken identities: A refused handshake and its politicization in Switzerland 110 Chapter 8: Debating Irish identity: Religion, race, nation and the construction of Irishness 126 Chapter 9: Anti-Islam politics, Christianity and identity in the Finnish public sphere 143 Part IV: Comparative perspectives 158 Chapter 10: Misrecognizing Muslim consciousness in Europe 160 Chapter 11: Afterword 179 Notes 186 References 194 Index 225 How does religion maintain or challenge discourses on national identity? What are the roles that religion plays on all sides – from Islamophobia of the radical right to the Christian alliances on both sides of the Atlantic, to the Islamic beliefs and practices of European citizens as well as migrant communities – in the constitution of Fortress Europe? Are there any alliances shaping between belief and unbelief on either side of the battle for the future of Europe? These questions and more motivate the chapters in this timely interdisciplinary collection, with contributions focusing on diverse contexts throughout Europe involving a broad range of religious identifications and actors.