Marketed as ‘the first systematic attempt to study the situation of European and American Muslims after 9/11’ (p i) this slender volume of ten essays, two of which are contributed by the editor Jocelyne Cesari, sets itself a very ambitious target. Whilst much of the material contained in the collection remains of interest, this broad canvas leaves little room for detailed exposition upon particular examples or novel analysis. Moreover, in spite of the subtitle, none of the contributors to the collection is an academic lawyer. This shortcoming has a direct impact upon the quality of the comparative legal analysis which forms an important element of many of these essays.

The collection is divided into three sections, with the two chapters which make up the first section seeking to provide an overview of the position of Muslims throughout Europe and the United States of America respectively. These short chapters set the scene for the remainder of the book, giving them some value for general readers. Nonetheless, much more could be made of the material contained in these chapters. Cesari's chapter on Islam in Europe is based upon a series of focus groups conducted in Paris, London, Berlin and Amsterdam between 2007 and 2009 (p 10). However, despite the lack of empirical research into the causes of the alienation which Cesari identifies amongst groups of Muslims across Europe, very little of this chapter (pp 17–19) is devoted to exploring the opinions of the participants in these groups. Such coverage compares unfavourably to the comprehensive, if now dated, Joseph Rowntree report on Muslim alienation in the United Kingdom.Footnote ¹ The second chapter in this section, Jane Smith's overview of Islam in America, is similarly undermined by a lack of detail. Reviewing Louis Farrakhan's ‘charismatic leadership’ of the Nation of Islam (p 34), for example, Smith does not delve into episodes such as Farrakhan's exclusion from the United Kingdom on the basis that his presence in the country would undermine relations between the Muslim and Jewish communities.Footnote ²

These limitations continue to affect some of the material presented in the substantive sections of the collection. Mahmood Monshipouri's chapter attempts to analyse the impact of counter-terrorism measures on Muslim communities across Europe and the United States. As a result, his analysis of the United Kingdom's Terrorism Act 2006 is limited to the acknowledgement that this legislation ‘expanded the discretionary powers granted to both the Home Office and the police’ (p 54). This contrasts markedly with Javaid Rehman's thorough analysis of the alienating potential of these counter-terrorism measures in the context of a legal system in England and Wales which is supposedly rooted in principles of multiculturalism.Footnote ³

Dirk Nabers and Robert Patman locate themselves in a rich field of scholarshipFootnote ⁴ in their chapter which focuses on the binary rhetoric of ‘good-versus-evil’ (p 67) employed by George W Bush's administration to justify its counter-terrorism policies after 9/11. This narrower focus produces an interesting study of the stultifying impact of this rhetoric upon political debate in the United States, with dissenting voices hamstrung for long periods by accusations that questioning administration policy was tantamount to disloyalty (p 82). This chapter is buttressed by Michael Desch's examination of the impulse to spread American values as an overarching theme in United States foreign policy (p 89). Whilst this facet of United States foreign policy has again been addressed by far more comprehensive studies in recent years,Footnote ⁵ Desch's chapter does make a valuable contribution to the debate, although one which appears slightly out of place in a collection focused on Muslims in the West.

In its third section this collection begins to address issues central to its titular subject matter in depth. Frank Peter's chapter, however, is worth the wait. He builds a convincing critique of the German government's problematisation of German Muslim communities since 2001 (122)p, in particular flagging up the difficulty faced by the federal government in its efforts to choose representatives with whom to engage (p 131). However, Jocelyne Cesari's second substantive chapter, examining the approach of jurisdictions across Europe to Muslim family law and public manifestations of religion again suffers due to its generality. Her conclusion generalises that all of Europe has adopted a single approach to minority groups (p 170), despite her analysis detailing profound differences of approach between states. Louise Cainkar's essay builds upon the chapter by Nabers and Patman by examining the impact upon American Muslims of the United States government's rhetoric in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks (p 181). Her study develops into an interesting analysis of civic activism by Muslim American groups to counteract the perceptions created by the Bush Administration's approach to counter-terrorism (p 190). Thereafter, in an essay which deserves to be widely read, Yasemin Shooman and Riem Spielhaus analyse the development of anti-Muslim stereotypes in public discourse in Germany. In contrast to commentators who deny that the diverse Muslim communities of Europe and the United States have actually coalesced into a single ‘alienated’ group as a result of shifting attitudes towards multiculturalism since 9/11,Footnote ⁶ Shooman and Spielhaus identify a concerted effort by populist right-wing groups across Europe to portray Muslims as being part of a homogenous group (p 205). Finally, a short chapter by Farhad Khosrokhavar traces the development of, and response to, radical Islam in France (p 230) and the United Kingdom (p 233).

Presented together, these essays do provide a useful overview of the widespread impact of the ‘war on terror’ in a range of countries. The collection, however, illustrates the impossibility of predicting future flashpoints with regard to the treatment of Muslim minorities in Western democracies. Despite the wide geographical scope of the essays, the collection includes only one passing reference to the position of Muslims in Switzerland (p 204). Whilst this may be considered indicative of the limited attention given to this country prior to the referendum result in November 2009 in favour of banning the construction of minarets,Footnote ⁷ it also highlights the need to build upon the platform provided by this collection.