European states and Muslim communities alike are facing questions regarding how and to what extent Muslim institutions, identities, and practices should be incorporated into the fabric of European social and political life. One issue at the heart of this debate concerns the institutionalization of Islam in Europe: what are the possibilities for European states and Muslim communities to work together to foster the development of a so-called European Islam? What are the challenges that states and Muslim publics encounter in this process, and what are the possible avenues by which Muslim identities, voices, and practices can be more fully represented in public debates and political discourse in Europe?

This essay attempts to address these questions by focusing on the history of the emergence of “Muslim” as a political category in Europe and by examining changing discourses surrounding the political mobilization and incorporation of immigrant communities across Europe. It then examines efforts by European states to institutionalize Islam in Europe. Institutionalization largely refers to the establishment of official bodies of representation for Islam in European states. But the “institutionalization of Islam in Europe” is also taking other forms, ranging from the establishment of strong non-governmental organizations that contribute to the development of European civil societies, to the emergence of parallel social and political structures that foster separate and autonomous Muslim public spheres within Europe, to organizational structures that are explicitly transnational in their makeup and political aims. All of these developments provide the basis for the emergence of an interdisciplinary research agenda on the future of Islam in Europe.

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