Islamic Mission on the European Continent: Ahmadiyya in the Footsteps ofGlobalization (1920-1990)

• Applicant: Gerdientje Jonker, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Religious Studies and Jewish Studies ; Islamic Studies, Arabian Studies, Semitic Studies
• Term: from 2013 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 237291247

This project researches the history of the Muslim mission in continental Europe, taking the Ahmadiyya mission as an example. The aim of the project is to reconstruct the establishment of mission centres and the spread of mission networks from the perspective of adaptive globalization (Osterhammel).The two Ahmadiyya reform movements, the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore (AAIILL) and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat (AMJ) represent differing mission approaches, one liberal intellectual, the other charismatic. The research seeks to clarify how, during the inter-war and post-war periods missionaries established contact with the cultural world of their Christian, and during the inter war period, Jewish, subjects. Taking the different religious positions as a starting point, the project analyses which mental map the missionaries operate from, which cultural modernity they perceive, and which concept of religion this enabled.The time frame 1920 to 1990 takes its cue from the main mission activities. The political landslide of 1933 divides the inter-war period in two. Major events in the 1970s also divide the post-war period into two parts. The focus on continental Europe traces the mission centres in Berlin (AAIIL) and Zürich / Frankfurt (AMJ) and their networks.We ask which Europe did the missionaries perceive; with which political and societal framework were they confronted; which European versions of modernity did they recognize as connecting to their own; which conflicts with other Muslim groups arose, and how did they influence the mission work.This is the first time that the Muslim mission in Europe has been studied in the context of globalization history. The project seeks to enrich the scholarly discourse on the Muslim mission in Europe in different ways. Looking beyond the present migration context, it initiates a fresh view of the history of Islam in Europe. Simultaneously, it sets an precedent for a history of religion in which Europe became the target of adaptive globalization.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants