Islam-studies in Leiden, The Netherlands – a tradition of over four centuries, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Islam-studies in Leiden, The Netherlands – a tradition of over four centuries

By Prof. Maurits Berger, head of the department of Islamic Theology

7 July 2009

Leiden University has a long tradition of Islam-studies. Granted, these studies were subject to their times. Studying Islam in the 16th and 17th century was aimed at understanding the religion of a faith that was considered inferior and even hostile to Christianity. And in the 18th and 19th centuries, when The Netherlands were colonizing Indonesia, the study of Islam was considered relevant for colonial purposes.

But times have changed drastically since then. Until recently the study of Islam meant a trip to the library or to some faraway exotic land. But now Islam is here, in the West. Muslims are our lawyers and legislators, bankers and bakers, cleaners and criminals. There are over 450 mosques in The Netherlands alone, headscarves and djellabas have become common features of street life. Many of our students are Muslim.

The academic landscape has changed accordingly. Muslims are not only subject-matter of research, but they are researchers themselves. Western societies are not outsiders to what is happening in Islamic discourse, but they play an important role.

Leiden has met these changes with a new study programme: Islam in the Contemporary West. The dialectic between ‘Islam’ and the ‘West’ has effects both ways: Muslims react to how they feel treated by the societies they live in, and their fellow citizens and societies react to the changes and threats they perceive are being created by Muslims. The interaction of these two forces creates new discourses of Islam.

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