The new issue of the Orient journal focuses on the Muslim world and the Internet, and contains different perspectives on issues related to political discourse, political activism and media-mediated authority in Islam. The journal, published by the Deutsche Orient-Stiftung and the Deutsches Orient-Institut, is available online.

This conference aims at analysing and conceptualising the current trends in policies and debates on Muslims in Europeby by exploring various sites and modalities through which the injunction made to “Muslims” to integrate is made effective, including - where possible - the range of Muslim responses to these injunctions. We assume that the emphasis on “integration”, so ubiquitous these days, reveals different yet possibly complementary strategies of normalization and securitization. We are interested in exploring the kinds of subjectivities that the relevant policies and debates may produce in the intersections between state, civil society and individuals. In this conference we will focus in particular on two areas: dialogue in its conceptual and empirical dimensions, and contestations around the law.

Islamopedia is a collection of rulings and religious opinions addressing the most debated topics of Islamic tradition today: gender, sexuality, non-Muslims, violence, secularism. In the near future, it will present scholarly analysis of and commentary on these rulings and opinions.

This article explores Islamic websites providing normative content for European Muslim minorities. It focuses on four distinct Sunni websites and analyzes their fatwas, i.e. legal and religious recommendations issued in matters related to family law. Drawing from a broader research of more than 450 fatwas, this article presents the various ways, in which Muslim authorities associated with these sites deal with the conflicting areas between Islamic law and European legal systems. Essentially, it argues that the Internet and information and communication technology create new public spheres where different, and oftentimes conflicting, concepts of coexistence between Islam and the State are negotiated. Moreover this article demonstrates how these concepts are later incorporated into existing legal frameworks through the institutions of arbitration and marriage contracts. At the same time it explores the underlying rationale behind the fatwa-issuing websites, which emphasize the role of the individual and promote voluntarily adherence to Islamic law. On a more general level, this article aims to provide case studies on how technology redefines the politics of religious authority.