-3 (SI), 2010

European Journal of Economic and Political Studies

Transnational Islam

Ihsan Yilmaz1

The term transnationalism was originally connected to immigration cohorts, but today the concept has been expanded to include a whole array of activities across borders. The term transnationalism broadly refers to multiple ties and interactions linking people or institutions across the borders of modern nation-states. Different ties and relationships are intertwined in the globalized world that is getting smaller thanks to technological advances. Transnationalism involves several layers ranging from the construction of transnational social spaces to the formation of transnational communities (Roudometof 2005: 113). Transnational migrants pave the way for the deterritorialization of cultures and people, who cut across the boundaries of the nationstate (Bhabha, 1992; Brah, 1996; Gilroy, 1993; Hall and duGay, 1996). Transnational interactions, mobilizations, activities, campaigns, power relations and so on influence the policies of international actors, the nation-state being the prime one. Whilst the continuing relevance of nation-states and interstate institutions cannot be denied and the nation-states remain the most powerful actors in the international system, as Sydney Tarrow (2005) demonstrates a widespread increase in transnational activism in the forms of such as global awareness; novel forms of communication and organization; and multi-issue campaigns is equally undeniable. There have been several studies shedding light on different aspects of transnationalism such as advocacy networks (Keck and Sikkink 1998); religion (Roy 2004); terrorism (Pape 2005); and transnational immigrant communities within the
1

Fatih University, Turkey. iyilmaz@fatih.edu.tr

Ihsan Yilmaz

advanced industrial liberal democracies (Faist 1998, 2000a, b; Glick-Schiller 1997; Gold 2000; Levitt 2001a, b; Portes 1996, 1998, 2001) but the area is a fertile ground awaiting for many more studies. The word Islam is one of the a few words that come to mind when we speak about transnationalism. For instance, the concept of ummah be it understood as a base for political entity by transnational groups such as Hizb utTahrir (Yilmaz 2009) or as a socio-cultural entity by transnational humanitarian activists such as Turkeys Fethullah Glen (Yilmaz 2003: 235) is very crucial in this regard. Moreover, there are many transnational Muslim religious groups operating globally such as Tabligh-i Jamaat. The existence of Muslim minority communities in the West is also another fact that makes transnationalism and Islam an attractive match for academics. Academics have been researching on loyalties to the nation-state among diasporic populations; studying the issues of globalization, cosmopolitanism, global citizenship and divided loyalties (Held, 1995, 2002; Nussbaum and Cohen, 2002; Singer, 2002; Soysal, 1994) and the existence of Muslim minority communities in the West offers scholars new avenues for research. It can for instance be analyzed if and to what extent Ingleharts (1997: 235) argument that the nation-state system is facing a weakening sense of attachment is true as far as Muslim diasporas are concerned. It can be studied if Muslim transnational communities form diasporic, subnational and ethnic identities that cannot be easily contained within the nation-state (Cohen, 1997: 1926) or if they are likely to develop multiple attachments to local and global allegiances (Appadurai 1996; Cohen 1996; Featherstone 2002; Clark 2009). Muslim transnational activism is another area of study. As Tarrow (2005) argues it can not only influence and change the nation-states incrementally and haltingly but also alter the strategies, claims, and identities of domestic movements. Religion is a lived experience and one deeply embedded in peoples lives. Changes in society, and changes in personal circumstances, produce changes in the substance and function of religious ideas, identities, and meanings. A transnational world is introducing those changes at what often seems to be a dizzying pace (Williams 2009: 133). Thus, studying continuities, discontinuities and transformations in religious identities and practices of Muslim individuals in a context of transnationalism and globalization is also a fertile ground. We hope that you will find in this special issue valuable contributions elaborating on some of these crucial themes.

European Journal of Economic and Political Studies

Bibliography Appadurai, A. 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalisation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Bhabha, H. 1992. Postcolonial Authority and Postmodern Guilt, in L. Grossberg (ed.)

Cultural Studies, New York: Routledge, pp. 5666.

Brah, A. 1996. Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities. London: Routledge. Clark, J. 2009. Nation-State Belonging among Asian Australians and the Question of Transnationalism, Current Sociology, 57: 27. Cohen, R. 1996. Diasporas and the Nation State: From Victims to Challengers.

International Affairs, vol. 72, No. 3: 50720.

Cohen, R. 1997. Global Diasporas: An Introduction. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Faist, T. 1998. Transnational Social Spaces out of International Migration: Evolution, Significance, and Future Prospects. Archives of European Sociology, Vol 39, No. 2: 21347. Faist, T. 2000a. The Volume and Dynamics of International Migration and Transnational

Social Spaces. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Faist, T. 2000b. Transnationalization in International Migration: Implications for the Study of Citizenship and Culture. Ethnic and Racial Studies. Vol. 23, No. 2: 189 222. Featherstone, M. 2002. Cosmopolis: An Introduction. Theory, Culture and Society, Vol. 19, Nos. 12: 116. Gilroy, P. 1993. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. London: Routledge. Glick-Schiller, N. 1997. The Situation of Transnational Studies. Identities, Vol. 4, No. 2: 15566. Gold, S. J. 2000. Transnational Communities: Examining Migration in a Globally integrated World, in Preet S. Aulakh and Michael G. Schechter (eds) Rethinking

Globalization(s): From Corporate Transnationalism to Local Interventions, New York: St Martins, pp. 7390.

Ihsan Yilmaz

Hall, S. and duGay, P. 1996. Questions of Cultural Identity. London: Sage. Held, D. 1995. Democracy and the Global Order. Cambridge: Polity Press. Held, D. 2002. Culture and Political Community: National, Global and Cosmopolitan, in R. Cohen and S. Vertovec (eds) Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory, Context, Practice . Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 4861 Inglehart, R. 1997. Postmaterialist Values and the Erosion of Institutional Authority, in J. Nye, P. Zelikow and D. King (eds) Why People Dont Trust Government. London: Harvard University Press. pp. 21737. Levitt, P. 2001a. The Transnational Villagers. Berkeley: University of California Press. Levitt, P. 2001b. Transnational Migration: Taking Stock and Future Directions, Global

Networks, Vol. 1, No. 3: 195216.

Nussbaum, M. and Cohen, J. 2002. For Love of Country: Debating the Limits of

Patriotism. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Pape, R. 2005. Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism . New York: Random House. Portes, A. 1996. Global Villagers: The Rise of Transnational Communities, American

Prospect 25: 747.

Portes, A. 1998. Divergent Destinies: Immigration, the Second Generation, and the Rise of Transnational Communities, in Peter H. Schuck and Rainer Munz (eds) Paths to Inclusion: The Integration of Migrants in the United States and Germany, New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 3357 . Portes, A. 2001. Introduction: The Debates and Significance of Immigrant Transnationalism, Global Networks, Vol. 1, No. 3: 18193. Roudometof, V. 2005. Transnationalism, Cosmopolitanism and Glocalization, Current

Sociology, Vol. 53, No. 1: 113135.

Roy, O. 2004. Globalized Islam. New York: Columbia University Press. Singer, P. 2002. One World: The Ethics of Globalization. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Soysal, Y. 1994. Limits of Citizenship: Migrants and Postnational Membership in

Europe. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

European Journal of Economic and Political Studies

Tarrow, S. 2005. The New Transnational Activism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Williams, R. H. 2009. Transnational Religion and the Shaping of Politics, Ethnicity, and Culture. Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 38; 129-133. Yilmaz, I. 2003. Ijtihad and Tajdid by Conduct: Glen and His Movement, in Hakan Yavuz and John L. Esposito (eds) Turkish Islam and the Secular state: The Gulen

Movement, Syracuse University Press, pp. 208-237.

Yilmaz, I. 2009. Socio-Economic, Political and Theological Deprivations Role in the Radicalization of the British Muslim Youth: The Case of Hizb ut-Tahrir, European

Journal of Economic and Political Sciences (EJEPS) , Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 89-101.