Sharia and Life: Authority, Compromise, and Mission in European Mosques

Drawing on five years of field studies in pragmatic- and dogmatic-inclined mosques across Europe, Sharia and Life explores how Muslims engage with sharia norms in general, and specifically with the challenges they face as Muslims living in majority non-Muslim societies.

The book examines how fatwas (advice on sharia-related matters) are quested, negotiated, paraphrased, contested, or ignored in mosques, on the internet, and elsewhere. It also analyses individual strategies, external to religio-legal discourse, through which Muslims mitigate conflicts between interpretations of sharia and everyday life.

Among the issues discussed in the book are financial transactions, education, the workplace, sports, electoral participation, Christmas greetings, proselytizing, and the legitimacy of choosing to live in a non-Muslim country. Shifting the focus from the authors and texts of fatwas to their recipients, Sharia and Life gives voice to those often left voiceless and demonstrates the great discretion and flexibility with which tensions between sharia and life are resolved.