For centuries, dominant approaches in international relations and sociology have viewed religion as a problem: Essentially emotional and irrational, religion, they maintained, disrupted state sovereignty and threatened international peace. This view in particular informed interpretations of Islam, seen to be intrinsically antimodern, antisecular, and anti-Western. The rise of third-wave radicalism and the mass Muslim immigration following the Arab Awakening have reenergized this essentialist view, spilling it over into global public debate, media, and everyday life. Islam is now seen as a problem causing all sorts of troubles, not only in its original lands but also in host countries. The displaced Muslim populations streaming into Europe and the existing Muslim minorities across the world are automatically depicted as potential hubs for religious fanaticism and violence that threaten their hosts from within. This fear is not just discursive; it shapes electoral behavior and campaigns in the United States, Russia, and Kenya.

Muslim Minority–State Relations is a very timely and sobering collection of essays in this particular context. It is timely because recent events have concrete and sizable implications on questions relating to Islam and Muslim minorities. It is sobering because by historically documenting the engagements between Muslims and states across cases marked by differing conditions, the collection calls into question the global image of Islam as a static religion creating a homogeneous Muslim entity that acts and thinks uniformly—a uniformity marked by an impulse to forcefully Islamize states and societies.

Challenging the presumed monolithic view of Muslims, the collection demonstrates the plurality of the Muslim sociopolitical and theological landscape, and documents how this plurality has come about, in that special attention is focused on the two-way interaction between Muslim minorities and states. That is to say, it is not only certain qualities of minorities that shape the state’s responses to minorities; the state’s own national history (colonialism, identity formation, regime change, or experiences with other minorities) and ideological commitments equally influence how it responds to minorities, shaping, in turn, how minorities view their identity, view the state, frame their actions, and interpret their religion.

Chapter 1 on Britain, for example, demonstrates how the British state’s particular definition of multiculturalism has worked as an overarching frame that shapes state–minority relations. Britain’s traditional secularist bias, which views passionate religious identity as essentially illiberal, resulted in a minority definition that excluded religion. Consequently, this biased definition not only limited the state’s understanding of multiculturalism but also curbed to some extent the Muslim conformity to it. Despite this backdrop, the chapter’s authors emphasize the continuation of multiculturalist sentiments in the country. It remains to be seen whether these sentiments will evolve to accommodate religious identities. This, however, may in part depend on how the state balances its increasing security approach toward Muslim citizens and its commitments to multiculturalism.

In Chapter 2, the reader is presented with a more detailed discussion of how the rise of a security approach, and subsequent limitation of liberties, has changed Muslim minority–state relations in a substantial way in Austria—in fact, creating a turning point. Of course, the security concerns are not groundless; however, by creating mutual suspicions, a mere security orientation runs the risk of being counterproductive, contributing to what it tries to combat. At a broader level, discussions lead to another tricky question: How can Europe tackle emerging security concerns without undermining its own commitments to democracy, liberties, and pluralism?

Chapter 3 examines the cases of Poland and Finland, where, the presence of Islam before the twentieth century allowed legal regulation of minority–state relations and, as such, presented both the state and Muslims with greater opportunities for integration. What catches the eye, however, is that in each case, historically Tatar Muslims were the only Muslim minorities until the 1980s. Tatars and the newcomer Muslims have not been well integrated to one another. The chapter does not detail the possible reasons that might have driven this segregation, even though this point is central to the argument. Is it possible that as a well-integrated group, Tatars felt closer to the host society than to the newcomers, despite their shared Muslim identity?

Chapter 4 on Russia is one of the strongest examples in the collection on the way in which the state’s own domestic and international trajectory influence the state’s view of, and relations with, minorities. The chapter tracks the nature of state–minority relations throughout different regimes, from the Orthodox empire to the most recent wave of a mix between nationalism and Orthodox Christianity, building an analytical examination that also puts contemporary events into historical perspective. Contemporary Russia’s claim to have a special Russian sovereignty and civilization different from the West underpins its claims for the presence of a special Russian Islam. This is not without historical precedence either. The Soviet state also co-opted religion, and through muftiates tried to create its own version. It will be interesting to see if Russia’s current involvement in Syria will impact its relations with Muslim minorities.

Chapters 6 and 7 on Nigeria and Kenya, respectively, are particularly informative in the sense that they show not only how history has influenced contemporary minority–state relations but also how history works as a repertoire for extremist movements. In both cases, colonial experience seems to have shaped minority–state and minority and majority society relations in breathtaking ways. Boko Haram, whose name means rejection of evil Western education, emerged in Nigeria, a country where the colonizers had used education to transform the society. Resisting education meant, therefore, resisting colonialism. Boko Haram successfully exploited this historical trauma, making a new language out of it by linking it to a distorted version of Islam.

In Kenya, on the other hand, British monarchs established a colony centered on Christianity. The colony eventually displaced Muslims with groups who converted to Christianity, and instilled a fear among Muslims for the Christianization of Kenya. This perceived fear continued in postindependence era. Muslims feared that Nigeria would turn into a Christian state. In part, this anxiety explains why Muslims have been pushing ever harder for continuation of Sharia and Muslim courts. This push appears not to be merely about religion; it presents, at a deeper level, an impulse to secure their identity and space and get the state to acknowledge their belonging. In Nigeria, religious identity has seemingly turned into a symbolic ground upon which belonging and ownership constitute a fight between groups who are equally anxious about each other’s “real intentions.”

Chapter 7 on Sri Lanka presents a context marked by ethnic conflict, politicized identities, and poor relations among faith groups. As in Africa, colonialism played a decisive part in this outcome. As the majority ethnic group, Sinhala Buddhists, who sought to differentiate their identity and break all ties from the colonial era, promoted their own ethno-religious identity at the expense of others. Both the Tamils and Muslims sought the same path, contributing to fragmentation. Historically, Muslims sided with Sinhalese in general and have been critical of Tamil separatism. However, the promotion of Sinhala Buddhism at the expense of all others created tense relations between Muslims and the state. This fragile relationship is reinforced in contemporary Sri Lanka, where the state is suspicious about growing connections between Muslims and foreign groups, and where extremist Sinhala Buddhist groups are becoming increasingly politicized.

The last chapter focuses on Myanmar, where Rohingya Muslims have been depicted as illegal immigrants and deprived even of basic rights since the 1960s under policies that promoted an exclusionary definition of citizenship based on ethnicity and religion. The Muslim response to this radically oppressive policy has simply been the construction of camps at the Myanmar–Thailand border, showing that the state is not even willing to recognize, let alone engage, the Rohingya.

In sum, this collection deserves praise for managing to reflect the complexity of Muslim minority–state relations through its selection of cases. It also contributes to social theory on religion by showing that religion is not static but interacts with the context surrounding it. This volume would be of interest and use for anyone who is searching for a comparative historical account of Muslim minority–state relations across regions of the world.