In this unique analysis of Muslim population shifts in the Western world, geographer Barry A. Vann provides fresh insights into the theological factors that play into these demographic trends. Vann examines the “imagined geographies” of Muslims with a puritan orientation. People with this mind-set are little inclined to accept a pluralistic, multicultural, live-and-let-live concept of society. And conflicts between conflicting value systems are almost inevitable. Vann notes that this purist approach to Islam is certainly not universal among Muslims, and there are many varying interpretations that are more moderate in outlook. Nonetheless, the undeniable theological background of all Muslim communities colors their values and attitudes, and must be taken into consideration when attempting to understand the potential conflicts between contiguous Muslim and non-Muslim groups. Given the fact that the population of Muslim immigrants is growing in traditionally Christian and increasingly secular countries of the Western world while the resident populations are either stagnant or declining, Vann’s insightful analysis of the ways in which Islam influences perceptions of community and geography is of great relevance.

This study explores the emergence of new activist Sufism in the Muslim world from the seventeenth century onwards.

This book offers a comparative and cross-cultural history of Islamic reform and European colonialism as both dependent and independent factors in shaping the multiple ways of becoming modern in Indonesia and Malaya during the first half of the twentieth century.

This book is about the tension between conservative and progressive groups within a modern Indonesian Islamic movement, Muhammadiyah. Although it has long been known for its promotion of 'rational', open and contextual understandings of Islam, during the past decade, it has been seen as becoming more conservative. This growing conservatism has galvanised progressive-minded Muhammadiyah members to push more boldly for the adoption of new and innovative Islamic thought. Unavoidably, the clash between those two groups cannot be avoided. This book shows that the conservative and progressive contestation has moved from having an open doctrinal and intellectual character to being increasingly hegemonic on the part of anti-liberal forces and punitive for progressive activists. Hence, progressives find themselves marginalised within and repressed by the organisation's conservative-dominated power structures. Interestingly, conservatives have a greater ability to attract a wider Muhammadiyah audience compared to the progressives. Conversely, progressives lack a popular basis and this has made them vulnerable within Muhammadiyah context.

Salafism is a contemporary multifaceted and global phenomenon that represents a fundamentalist interpretative stance which appears to be growing among minority Muslims. This book studies a Salafi group in Sweden that is puritan in the sense of avoiding political participation and rejecting jihadism.