Abstract
Abstract Current debates on Islam in Europe often focus on imams as religious leaders and key figures in integration politics. Muslim associations undergoing processes of transformation and generational change have equally high expectations of imams. This article uses stakeholder theory to analyse the current situation of imams and draws on empirical material from Switzerland to illustrate both multi-faceted stakeholder claims and imams’ self-reflections on role conflicts they experience. It indicates that imams and Muslim associations tend to develop different coping strategies leading either to an enlarged profile for imams or to a differentiation of functions and professions in the social and religious fields.
Highlights
Introduction and State of ResearchImams are a key topic of current social debate and media coverage on Islam in various European countries
In 2016, the German-language magazine Sternstunde Religion presented the issue of imams by illustrating their everyday tasks and lives, and explored tensions arising from the transnational relations of some imams as Turkish officials.[81]
A distinction may be made between prominent “model-imams” responding positively to stakeholder expectations, average imams without any particular reaction and others considered to be deficient
Summary
Imams are a key topic of current social debate and media coverage on Islam in various European countries. Switzerland presents a special case within a wider European panorama: it has a considerable Muslim population, 5.5% of the total, mainly from a Balkan or Turkish background.[14] Due to the strong elements of direct democracy in the Swiss political system, there is broad participation in political debates across the entire population These tend to be very controversial, even fierce, as with the issues of head-covering and the construction of minarets.[15] In religion–state relations, which are cantonal affairs, Switzerland combines a model of cooperation with elements of separation, in some French-speaking Swiss cantons. The perspective is again widened to a more general framework of debate (section 7)
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