Religion as Securitization in Central and Eastern Europe examines the significance of securitization theory as a reference point in understanding current religious, socio-cultural, and political processes in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It explores contemporary social processes and discourses on security linked to religion and religious institutions. CEE has experienced many confluences of security issues with religious interpretations and world views. For instance, the international refugee and migration crisis could not be separated from the counterpoint between Christianity and Islam in political discussions. Similarly, the debates on LGBT family recognition and the traditional family model are inseparable from the “Christian family” as a reference point. The security needs of the region are particularly acute trigger points, which can be instrumentalized by political power. In other words, the threat sensitivities of collective identity make the region particularly well suited to being a focus of securitization, both from the host side and from the discourses that are enforced from above. In this volume, the authors approach the validity of securitization in relation to religion, and religion itself as securitization, from a broader perspective. They show not only what religious facts and aspects have become threatening in the process of securitization but also that the function of religion in the CEE region can be described and understood primarily as securitization. This unique collection of studies offers a comprehensive theoretical and methodological approach, while the case studies are drawn from more than seven countries in the region, by leading scholars. The book will be of interest to scholars from a wide range of disciplines including political science, history, anthropology, and religious studies. It will also function as an important introductory work for students to this specific area of research.

The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Central Asia offers the first comprehensive, cross-disciplinary overview of key issues in Central Asian studies. The 30 chapters by leading and emerging scholars summarise major findings in the field and highlight long-term trends, recent observations and future developments in the region. The handbook features case studies of all five Central Asian republics and is organised thematically in seven sections: History Politics Geography International Relations Political Economy Society and Culture Religion An essential cross-disciplinary reference work, the handbook offers an accessible and easyto- understand guide to the core issues permeating the region to enable readers to grasp the fundamental challenges, transformations and themes in contemporary Central Asia. It will be of interest to researchers, academics and students of the region and those working in the field of Area Studies, History, Anthropology, Politics and International Relations. Chapter 23 of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

In Islam in Post-communist Eastern Europe Egdūnas Račius reveals how governance of religions and practical politics in Eastern Europe are permeated by churchification and securitization of Islam, and Muslim religious organizations have been turned into ecclesiastical-bureaucratic institutions akin to ‘Muslim Churches’.

Arguably more than any other region, the area known as Eastern Europe has been defined by its location on the map. Yet its inhabitants, from statesmen to literati and from cultural-economic elites to the poorest emigrants, have consistently forged or fathomed links to distant lands, populations, and intellectual traditions. Through a series of inventive cultural and historical explorations, Eastern Europe Unmapped dispenses with scholars’ long-time preoccupation with national and regional borders, instead raising provocative questions about the area’s non-contiguous—and frequently global or extraterritorial—entanglements.

For centuries, since the Roman Empire's adoption of Christianity, the continent of Europe has been perceived as something of a Christian fortress. Today, the increase in the number of Muslims living in Europe and the prominence of Islamic belief pose questions not only for Europe's religious traditions but also for its constitutional make up. This book examines these challenges within the legal and political framework of Europe. The volume's contributors range from academics at leading universities to former judges and politicians. Its 19 chapters focus on constitutional challenges, human rights with a focus on religious freedom, and securitisation and Islamophobia, while adopting supranational and comparative approaches. This book will appeal not merely to academics and law students in the UK and the EU, but to anyone involved in diplomacy and international relations, including political scientists, lobbyists and members of NGOs. It explores these contested relationships to open up new spaces in how we think about religious freedom and co-existence in Europe and the crucial role that Islam has had, and continues to have, in its development.

This book explores the ways in which democratizing Muslim countries treat their ethnic minorities’ requests of inclusiveness and autonomy. The author examines the results of two important cases—the securitization of Kurds in Turkey and the “autonomization” (a new concept coined by the study) of Acehnese in Indonesia—through multiple hypotheses: the elites’ power interest, the international factors, the institutions and history of the state, and the ontological security of the country. By examining states with ethnic diversity and very little religious diversity, the research controls for the effect of religious conflict on minority inclusion, and so allows expanded generalizations and comparisons. In non-Muslim majority countries, and in so called “mature democracies,” the problem of the inclusion of old or new ethnic minorities is also crucial for the sustainability of the “never-ending” democratization processes.

Having often been framed in terms of security concerns, migration issues have simultaneously given rise to issues of insecurity: on the one hand, security of borders, political, societal and economic security/insecurity in the host country; on the other, social, legal and economic concerns about human security, with regard to both EU citizens and migrants entering Europe. In terms of state security, migration is a core target of increasingly globally networked surveillance capabilities, whilst with respect to human security, it exposes the gap between the protections that migrants formally enjoy under international law and the realities they experience as they travel and work across different countries. Drawing on the latest research from across the EU, Security, Insecurity and Migration explores the concerns of states with regard to migration and the need to protect the fundamental rights of migrants. An interdisciplinary examination of the issues of security and insecurity raised by migration for states, their citizens and migrants themselves, this book will be of interest to scholars of politics, sociology and geography researching migration, race and ethnicity, human and state security and EU politics and policy.

Religious Identity and Social Change offers a macro and micro analysis of the dynamics of rapid social and religious change occurring within the Muslim world. Drawing on rich ethnographic and quantitative research in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia, David Radford provides theoretical insight into the nature of religious and social change and ethnic identity transformation exploring significant questions concerning why people convert and what happens when they do so. A crisis of identity occurs when religious conversion takes place, especially from one major religious tradition (Islam) to another (Christianity); and where religious identity is intimately connected to ethnic and national identity. Radford argues for the importance of recognising the socially constructed nature of identity involving the dynamic interplay between human agency, culture and social networks. Kyrgyz Christians have been active agents in bringing religious and identity transformation building upon the contextual parameters in which they are situated.

This book weaves together research on cultural change in Central Europe and Eurasia: notably, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. Examining massive cultural shifts in erstwhile state-communist nations since 1989, the authors analyze how the region is moving in both freeing and restrictive directions. They map out these directions in such arenas as LGBTQ protest cultures, new Russian fiction, Polish memory of Jewish heritage, ethnic nationalisms, revival of minority cultures, and loss of state support for museums. From a comparison of gender constructions in 30 national constitutions to an exploration of a cross-national artistic collaborative, this insightful book illuminates how the region’s denizens are swimming in changing tides of transnational cultures, resulting in new hybridities and innovations. Arguing for a decolonization of the region and for the significance of culture, the book appeals to a wide, interdisciplinary readership interested in cultural change, post-communist societies, and globalization.