Islam in Greece: religious identity and practice among indigenous Muslims and Muslim immigrants

Lead Research Organisation: University of Surrey
Department Name: Psychology

Abstract

The proposed 18 month study will explore socio-cultural processes of religious identification and practice and the politics of recognition of indigenous and migrant Muslims in Greece. As a country that has only recently began to attract large scale immigration, including growing numbers of migrants from Muslim countries, while at the same time hosting an indigenous Muslim minority at the North-East region of Thrace, Greece provides an interesting case study for exploring processes, policies and practices relating to the presence and role of Islam in Europe.

The project will build on our previous work on minorities and migrants in Greece and will specifically examine the ways through which religious identity and practice are experienced, perceived, negotiated and organised by Muslims in Athens, at formal, vernacular and symbolic levels. In particular, we seek to explore such experiences, perceptions and negotiations with respect to formal and informal places of worship, religious rituals and symbols, as well as everyday practices, expressions and relations.

The focus will be on two specific Muslim groups in Athens: recently-arrived Pakistani immigrants (who constitute the largest Muslim migrant community in Greece) and internal Muslim migrants from the indigenous minority of Thrace. The rationale for this comparison responds to a need for integrated accounts of 'migrants' and 'national minorities', in order to understand the role of religion as a 'marker' of collective identification, the patterns of interaction between these distinct groups and their place within ongoing debates on Islam in Greece. In that sense, our study will also address the politics of recognition of Muslim identities in the public sphere of a country whose national myth is essentially constructed in opposition to the (Ottoman/Turkish) Muslim 'Other' and where the (Orthodox) Church is not legally separated from the State.

The research will contribute to ongoing debates surrounding the place of Islam in Europe, at a time of EU enlargement towards countries with indigenous Muslim populations, of growing policy concerns about immigrants' integration centred particularly upon Muslims, and of discriminatory and exclusionary frameworks partly referring to global politics of terrorism.

Our previous application was graded A+ and we were invited to resubmit. The original version has been revised to include issues arisen in the meantime through our ongoing preliminary work on the topic and to take into account the reviewers' comments. In particular, as suggested by one of the reviewers (Review ID: 150497), we have lowered our percentage of time from 80% to 60% for the PI and from 60% to 40% for the Co-I.

Our innovative account of Muslims in Greece will be explored through a combination of qualitative methodologies and analytical tools, including interviews, observational studies, review of relevant academic literature, press articles and official statistics. The project will build on the research team's experience and expertise in researching immigrants and the Muslim minority in Greece, and will benefit from the links already established with community organisations in Athens. The topic is expected to raise sensitive issues, related to some participants' legal status and marginality, thus ethical considerations will be of paramount importance in carrying out the fieldwork research.

The study will produce outputs of academic relevance, as well as outputs relevant to Muslim community organisations in Greece.

Planned Impact

Our research explores two Muslim minority groups (one indigenous and one migrant) in Greece that not only are currently understudied but also reside in a country where religion (Orthodox Christian) plays an important role in the social and political life. In comparison to other European countries, Greece has only recently become a major migration destination and therefore it is currently undergoing through important social transformations. As a result there are very few 'proper' provisions for the groups under study. Although we do not wish to claim that we have the power to completely change this, we believe that our proposed study can raise awareness and add considerably to knowledge about these groups and their needs.

In particular, we believe that our research will be of great relevance and benefit to community organisations, not only of the two groups under study but also, in the long term, of other migrant /minority groups. Potential users include:

- Migrant and minority community organisations in Thrace and Athens such as the Greek Migrants Forum, the Pakistani Community Organisation, the Union of Turkish Teachers in Thrace, the Association of Muslims of Southern Greece, etc.
- NGOs and migrants rights organisations, such as Human Rights Watch, the Greek Helsinki Monitor, the Greek Council for Refugees, the Balkan Neighbours project, etc.
- Policy makers and mainstream political actors, including governmental bodies, such as the Institute for Migration Policy, or the Ministries of Interior and of Education and Religious Affairs, local authorities like the Municipality of Athens and the Athens Planning authority, as well as the Church of Greece (the Holy Synode).

Our research will benefit the above users by raising awareness and contributing to theoretical and policy debates over the role and practices of European Islam and will provide a significant basis for understanding processes, practices and experiences. In particular, we will generate important new knowledge about socio-cultural and religious needs that we hope will foster a better understanding of these communities, increase the provision and effectiveness of services and could enhance the quality of life for the groups involved. Moreover, we hope it will stimulate reciprocity and networking between migrant and minority groups who may share common interests or problems but never found a platform through which to engage with each other.

In order to make sure that users will benefit from our research we will fully engage community organisations as research participants (as described in our case of support) and we will organise workshops and seminars where representatives from the above groups will be invited. We have already included in our outputs and dissemination a major workshop in Athens (included in our budget) which will aim to bring together academic and non-academic user groups.

Both the applicants and the consultant involved in the project have previous experience of working with minority and immigrant communities and engaging with community organisations with many of whom they all maintain established contacts. Our intention is to actively involve such organisations in the dissemination of research results; the above-mentioned seminar will provide a platform for this. A Greek translation of the summary report, as well as posters and audiovisual material will be made available to relevant community organisations.
 
Description Focusing on indigenous and migrant Muslims in Athens, this 18 month study explored socio-cultural processes of religious identification, negotiation and practice and the politics of recognition of Muslim communities in Greece. Using predominantly qualitative research methods (including narratives, open-ended interviews, ethnography, analysis of video and photographs) we compared the experiences and perceptions of two distinct Muslim groups in Athens: Pakistani migrants and internal migrants from the Muslim minority of Thrace, Northern Greece.



The key objectives of the study were:

1. To investigate the meaning and role of Islam as an element of collective identification and the extent to which it conditions how Muslim communities in Greece position themselves in relation to each other and the (Christian Orthodox) majority.

2. To explore ways of formal and informal organisation, negotiation and representation of religious practices among the groups under study and the extent to which such practices are centred around specific places of worship and are mediated through particular rituals and symbols.

3. To examine political, institutional and ideological processes of recognition, tolerance and reaction to indigenous and immigrant Muslims in Greece, a country where the Church is not legally separated by the State and where Orthodox religion plays a central role in notions of national identity.



Although our project addressed specific research questions, our thematic analysis was initially data driven so that our key themes were allowed to emerge inductively and through the richness of our empirical data. During our fieldwork we conducted 3 group discussions and 45 interviews (with Thracians, Pakistanis and other migrants in Athens; and with key informants, community leaders and political representatives in Thrace and Athens); we carried out extensive ethnographic fieldwork in numerous prayer sites and of public prayers and gathered video and photographic material of such events.



Our key findings are summarised below:



• Migration process and settlement

Our study highlighted the diverse migratory and settlement experiences between various ethnic Muslim groups and the indigenous Muslims in Athens as well as the differences between Pakistanis who had been leaving and had settled in the country for many years and those who had recently arrived. Newcomers (both Pakistanis and the few Egyptian and Syrian migrants we interviewed) who had come to Greece in the last 5 to 10 years had aspirations for moving on to Western Europe and often viewed Greece as a stepping stone rather than a final destination. The majority performed hard manual tasks in specific economic sectors, often through informal arrangements and thus without social security and with very modest rewards. However, those who had come to Greece under different circumstances a long time ago (for example, through work agreements between Greece and Pakistan) had settled and had created their own families in the country often saw Greece as their own country and felt a sense of belonging.



In contrast, Thracian Muslims who moved internally from Thrace in Northern Greece to Athens, still had a very strong local affiliation and a strong sense of belonging to their home towns and villages, which they visited often during religious and summer holidays. The majority of Thracian Muslims came to Athens in the mid 70s and early 80s, and many have settled in the areas of Gazi and Plateia Vathis both located in downtown Athens, close to the areas where Muslim migrants now chose to live. This internal migration movement was reinforced both by the lack of jobs in Thrace as well as by a state policy that started in the early 80s and aimed to encourage members of the minority in Thrace to find employment in the public sector in other towns. However, it seems that the policy's ultimate goal was to weaken the Muslim presence and their political participation in Thrace. Once in Athens, they lose all access to Muslim institutions (pray sites, minority schools and the provision of Islamic family law), mainly due to the absence of such institutions outside Thrace. Our study showed that as a result, these internal Greek Muslim migrants often experience problems similar to those of recent Muslim migrants, marked by prejudice, exclusion and limited religious provisions.



For both groups, social, ethnic and family networks in Athens played an important role in their decision to migrate/move to Athens and such networks and ties often facilitated their initial settlement and access to work. Furthermore, religious networks and attendance of prayers (especially on Fridays) in the informal prayer rooms were often seen as good platforms to meet people from the same country or even the same locality.





• Religious identity and practice: rituals and celebrations

Our research revealed that religious rituals and celebrations played a very important role in maintaining and mediating religious identity and belonging whilst away from 'home'. In the absence of a central mosque Muslim migrants often gathered in public places in central Athens or in large venues such as stadiums (after obtaining a relevant permit from local municipal and police authorities) to celebrate the end of Ramadan and perform prayers for Eid-al-Fitr and Eid-al-Adha. In general, the migrants' attachment to transnational religious networks allowed them for the maintenance of ties with places of origin and provided a source of ethnic and religious identity while in Athens. Religious associations appeared to play an important role in the migrants' acculturation in Athens and religious feasts were points of reference for many of our participants. Our fieldwork showed that prayers during the Ramadan period were attended by more people than during the rest of the year, while major and minor festivals were specially celebrated in most informal prayer sites. During our fieldwork we observed various such celebrations, organised by the Muslim Association of Greece, as well as the Pakistani community Unity and other organizations, which inevitably attracted large public and media attention. Muslim community leaders justified their choice to pray in public by referring to the lack of a formal place of worship, but, the performance of Islamic identity in landmark locations was often a protest statement and an active claim of rights and recognition.



Such public events and prayers however, were rarely attended by Muslim Thracians in Athens who did not identify with the 'newcomers'. Instead they often travelled to Thrace for the religious holidays or arranged gatherings for friends and relatives at home.



• The Mosque Debate and informal prayer sites

One of the biggest concerns, in relation to their every day religious practice, among our participants was the absence of an official central mosque in Athens and a designated Muslim cemetery. This was an important issue for both Pakistani and indigenous Muslims and one of their main common problems. Interestingly, although the religious organisation of Greek indigenous Muslims is formally institutionalised in Thrace with more than 300 mosques all over the area, Muslim cemeteries in most villages and towns and dedicated minority schools, once in Athens they loose all access to such provisions. All of our participants expressed their disappointment to the fact that Athens is one of the few European capitals without a proper mosque. Interviews with community representatives and religious leaders in Thrace revealed that in the absence of a Muslim cemetery in Athens migrants who die are often transported to Thrace to be buried in Islamic cemeteries in the area.



In the absence of a central mosque, a plethora of informal prayer sites exists in many neighbourhoods of Athens with high concentration of Muslim migrants. As the immigrant Muslim population in the capital, estimated at between 200-300,000 people, outnumbers numerically Thracian Muslims (estimated at about 10,000-15,000) so do their various informal mosques. More than a hundred prayer rooms operate in Greater Athens. Most of them operate in flats, basements, storerooms, garages, or abandoned small industrial sites. They are, more correctly, prayer halls or sites of worship, as denoted by the terms masjid or mescit. While in the early years the significantly fewer prayer rooms were gathering a much more diverse audience, language issues and especially processes of immigrant settlement and the formation of local religious 'communities' have led to growing fragmentation of informal mosques on the basis of ethnicity. Our research showed that such fragmentation may even reflect different Islamic traditions among immigrants of the same ethnicity in the same district. For example, during our fieldwork we located two Sunni Pakistani mosques operating in the same location, at a distance of about 500 metres of each other in the district of Egaleo, attracting followers of different Islamic traditions (orthodox Hanafi and Sufi). We also found two Shi'a mosques maintained by Pakistani migrants and situated very close to Sunni Pakistani mosques. The Thracian Muslims on the other hand, had established their own prayer halls which were often organised as 'village associations' -that is people from the same locality or even the same village back in Thrace would rent a flat and use it as a meeting place and prayer site. Although we found a couple of Thracian Muslims who frequented migrants' prayer sites, their cases were quite unique and related to the fact that they leaved very close to Pakistani prayer sites. Our research showed that this fragmented religious organisation reflected the diversity within Islam in general, and within Athens' Muslim population in particular, stemming from different national and ethnic origins, religious traditions, migratory histories and processes of settlement in the Greek capital.



Our study also revealed that, apart from covering the needs of daily religious practice, informal mosques functioned as a hub in transnational space, allowing immigrants to maintain practical and symbolic ties with places of origin while at the same time re-localising religious practice abroad. They also provided spaces of familiarity in an otherwise alien and often hostile environment as well as places for socialisation and community solidarity. The informal prayer sites that we studied worked as a social space of multiple uses, functions and roles and were centre-staged to specific local 'communities'. Informal sites of worship were meeting places for people of the same origin or even village, and this was equally true for both immigrant and indigenous Muslims.



• Relations between indigenous and migrant communities

One of our initial research questions concerned the extend to which Thracian Muslims and Pakistani migrants in Athens relate to each other, not only in terms of similarities and differences regarding religious practice, identification and representation at formal, mundane or symbolic levels, but also in terms of the patterns of interaction between these groups and their place within debates on Islam in Greece. Our findings indicate that although people from both groups share similar problems in relation to the lack of a central mosque to pray and a dedicated cemetery in Athens, there are very limited interaction points between them. Our research highlighted that the majority of interactions between the two groups were at an official level. For example, the Muslim Association of Greece and other Muslim migrant organisations in Athens often asked the help of the religious leadership in Thrace mainly for burials of migrants and in fewer cases for weddings.



However, one thing that seemed to connect both the migrant and indigenous Muslims in Athens was the official stance towards Islam in Greece which is considered as the national other. Both our Pakistani and Thracian research participants referred to the fact that Islam is often seen in Greece in historical terms and is always connected to the Ottoman legacy of the country. In this context, Greek national identity has been historically constructed, partly at least, in opposition to a Muslim 'Other', and Muslim populations living within the country's borders have been historically associated with Turkey and the Turks. Pakistani and other migrants often complained in our interviews that on top of being stigmatised in terms of their racial or ethnic otherness, their religion was also associated with Turkish Islam and therefore seen as a historical enemy of the country. Nevertheless, our study shows that the increased numbers and visibility of immigrants in the Greek public sphere has started to challenge both the discourse and the geography of Islam in Greece.



Overall, our study highlighted the limited communication that exists between older indigenous Muslim communities and the migrant Muslim population in Athens. Although research participants from both groups mentioned that they face similar problems and issues, they seemed to be differentiated by their different ethnic, geographical and more importantly socio-legal statuses and therefore there was very little substantial convergence between them.





• Community organisations and representation

Our study showed, rather expectedly, that there is not a single body addressing Greece's migrant Muslims. During our fieldwork we found several organizations of various communities working along religious lines or around religious issues. An earlier organization named Panhellenic Federation of Supporting Muslims in Greece, 'Filotita', was set up in Athens in 1997 by Thracian Muslims and managed to enlist members from various migrant groups, claiming to represent the entire Muslim population, but our study revealed that it remains rather inactive in recent years. The largest and perhaps most influential organization at present is the Muslim Association of Greece (MAG), founded in Athens in 2003 and headed by an Egyptian businessman, who has been living in Greece for about forty years, has Greek citizenship, and is married to a Greek convert to Islam. The MAG comprises long-settled migrants and Greek converts, as well as recent immigrants and refugees, mostly (though not exclusively) originating from Arabic countries; it represents several informal prayer sites.



Immigrants from South Asian countries have established their own associations and religious organizations in the last ten years or so. During our research we located seven Pakistani religious organizations of diverse religious denominations and Islamic traditions, including two Shi'a associations, which run their own sites of worship. The majority of Pakistani migrants tend to identify either with different tendencies of the Barelvi movement and their transnational Sufi networks (such as Minhaj-ul-Quran, or the Sultan Bahu Trust), or with missionary networks originating from the Deobandi movement such as Tablighi Jamaat. We found that informal mosques are to a lesser or greater extent associated to one of these organizations. Some of the nationality-based (non-religious) immigrant community organizations also have ties with these religious organizations.



In this sense, our findings indicate that religious differences alongside political ones, in respect to both home-country politics as well as to political alliances in Greece, explain representational splits within immigrant groups, as we observed among Pakistani migrant organizations, whose ways of mobilization include seeking alliances with radical left groups or with the government. In fact, we located various nationality-based associations and community organizations established by migrants and refugees from a wide range of Muslim countries, often more than one per nationality, even by numerically small and recently established immigrant groups. Their primary functions entail mostly social and cultural activities, including legal support and information, lobbying and advocacy, assistance with employment issues, care and education for children, and organization of cultural events and festivals. In many cases, however, religion enters the frame of their activities either as an issue of advocacy or struggle, or as a matter of responding to the mundane and daily religious needs of the community, or even as a domain of culture and memory in the occasion of religious feasts. The leaders of such organizations, as well as those of many religious associations, typically belong to the tiny elites of the groups that they represent: they have been in Greece for a longer period, possess a long-term legal status, and are often educated and financially comfortable.



In short, as in the case of the informal prayer halls, we observed a fragmentation of Muslims on the basis of nationality, different Islamic traditions, different localities in Athens and beyond, different politics reflecting diverging allegiances in their countries of origin, as well as different political tactics and alliances in Greece. The single issue around which the different organizations mobilized together is that of the Athens central mosque. However, our findings indicate that should the mosque be eventually built, divisions both between and within different communities, organizations, and Islamic traditions are not expected to fade out but may rather come to the fore.



• Experience of prejudice and discrimination

Our study revealed that most of the discrimination experienced by Muslims appeared to relate to their very position and status as immigrants rather than their religion. The majority of our participants explained that they had experienced some degree of prejudice and xenophobia rather than Islamophobia. This view was more prominent among Pakistani migrants and less among Thracian Muslims in Athens. Nevertheless, there was a sense that in the context of the recent economic crisis there has been rising xenophobia and racism. Indeed, during the course of our study we collected numerous press reports of violent racist attacks towards Pakistani victims, including beatings and stabbings, the majority of incidents taking place in downgraded parts of central Athens or working-class districts of Greater Athens. Such attacks were mainly orchestrated by member of 'Golden Dawn' an ultranationalist neo-Nazi party with an openly racist and Islamophobic agenda. Mosque managers explained to us that they always made sure to have good relations with their landlords and neighbours, as well as local police and municipal authorities. Lately, because of the alarmingly growing racist attacks, they actively seek to be as invisible as possible. This was actually mentioned by several interviewees.



Furthermore, as our study took place during the financial downturn and the introduction of harsh austerity measures in Greece, most of our participants explained that they had been badly affected by the economic crisis. Not only some of them had lost their jobs but they also experienced hostile attitudes towards them by Greek people who often perceived them as one of the causes of the socio-economic problems affecting the country. Although our Thracian Muslim participants did not seem to experience such hostility, many of them faced long-term unemployment and talked to us about their plans to return to Thrace where they could at least work in the agricultural sector.



• Legal status and the issue of citizenship



Legal status was one of the major issues of concern for the majority of our Pakistani participants. Muslim immigrants are subject to the general laws that apply to all immigrants: theoretically, this means both general human rights and the legal framework for third country nationals ('aliens') under Greek law. The legal statuses of our interviewees ranged from citizenship for the rather few migrants who have been settled in Greece for several decades, to long-term stay permits for the majority. Many of those who arrived between the late 1990s and mid-2000s are subject to a short-term stay permit which is renewable every one or two years; however, maintaining this status has become a problem in the context of the recent economic crisis since renewal depends on proven formal employment, which has become scarcer. Some Muslim immigrants have been granted refugee status or asylum; those whose applications are still pending have the right to stay under the temporary status of 'asylum-seekers'. The vast majority of newcomers in the last few years, however, remain undocumented.



The issue of citizenship was more prominent among those who had been in Greece for many decades or had been born in Greece to migrant parents. Hegemonic notions of the Greek national identity have had serious implications for the legal requirements of who can and who cannot acquire Greek citizenship. Historically, religion (Orthodox Christianity), language and ethnic descent have been the most important elements of the Greek national identity, which have subsequently influenced historical shifts in the regulatory framework of citizenship. In this respect, according to the respective legal framework, not only citizenship was reserved chiefly for those of proven Greek descent/origin, but more generally the development of immigration policies over the past twenty years was highly selective and fragmented, distinguishing between various "categories" of migrants partly on the basis of national identity considerations. A new citizenship law passed in March 2010 (3838) has provided new requirements to allow long-term foreign residents and their children to acquire citizenship. However, the law was never implemented and was later deemed incompatible to the constitution.



As Greek citizens, Thracian Muslims do not face the legal issues that Pakistani and other migrants face in relation to their legal status and residence in the country. Nevertheless these internal migrants have similar problems to those of foreign immigrants, not only in terms of precarious and badly-paid employment, but chiefly in respect to religious rights and facilities, access to which is lost once outside the region of Thrace. In contract to their visibility in the area of Thrace, many of our indigenous Muslim participants explained that in Athens they become completely invisible not only because they lose access to their religious facilities but also because they are dispersed in Athens and outnumbered by the migrant Muslims.





At a theoretical level our findings have:



• Contributed to on-going academic and political debates surrounding the presence, position and role of Islam in Europe;

• Advanced the sociological and anthropological field of both indigenous minorities and economic migrants;

• Enhanced our knowledge of the relationship between often contested (Muslim) identities to claims of (European) nationhood and citizenship.
Exploitation Route We have produced a research report in Greek which was distributed during a dissemination event that we organised in Athens in June 2011. Apart from academics and postgraduate students, the audience also included representatives from various community associations, migrant and Muslim organisations, politicians and policy makers and attracted attention from national, minority and international media. The event was widely reported in minority and Pakistani community newspapers and blogs and Turkish newspapers.



The results of our study have also been disseminated to various community and minority religious organisations both through our established contacts as well as the distribution of our Greek research report.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Security and Diplomacy,Other
URL http://www.fahs.surrey.ac.uk/islamingreece/about.htm
 
Description Our research has explored two Muslim minority groups (one indigenous and one migrant) in Greece that not only have been understudied but also reside in a country where religion (Orthodox Christian) plays an important role in the social and political life. In comparison to other European countries, Greece has only recently become a major migration destination and therefore it is currently undergoing through important social transformations. As a result there are very few 'proper' provisions for the groups under study. Although we do not wish to claim that we have completely changed this, we have tried, through our dissemination activities, to raise awareness and, through our research reports that we distributed to community organisations, NGOs and policy makers and governmental bodies, we have added considerably to knowledge about these groups and their needs. In particular, the project has achieved a substantial level of impact to date: Academic Impact: - Events: we organised two very successful conference panels as part of CRONEM's International conference at the University of Surrey (June 2011 and June 2012). The CRONEM conferences attracted some of the world's leading scholars on issues of migration, multiculturalism, social inclusion/exclusion and belonging and our panels included presentations from both established and younger academics. The project has also been extensively disseminated in other conferences through presentations and invited lectures and keynotes. We have more than 10 presentations to date with more abstracts accepted for forthcoming events. These presentations have further resulted in strong research collaborations with scholars and groups exploring Islam and Muslim communities in the periphery of Europe -including an edited volume on the same topic. -Publications: we have published papers (in Social and Cultural Geography and Ethnic and Racial Studies) and book chapters and have a number of forthcoming publications, including our own edited volume on indigenous and migrant Muslims in Greece. -Project website: our study aims, results and outputs have been widely disseminated through the project's website. Currently the website is being updated to include current and forthcoming outputs and relevant information. Policy and Societal Impact Events: We organised and convened a successful and very well attended policy dissemination event in Athens, Greece (June 2011). This event brought together representatives of community organisations, policy makers and mainstream political actors, including governmental bodies and representatives form the Ministries of Interior and of Education and Religious Affairs, local authorities like the Municipality of Athens, as well as academics and representatives of international embassies in Athens (such as the Pakistani, Iranian and Turkish embassy). The impact of this dissemination event resulted in further invitations to talk in other conferences and important links with community organisations. Research Reports and Media coverage: we produced a research report in Greek which was disseminated widely to community organisations and relevant policy makers and governmental bodies. Our project has also had an impact on the media with a dedicated report in Zaman (October 2010) one of the leading Turkish newspapers.
First Year Of Impact 2011
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Security and Diplomacy
Impact Types Cultural,Societal
 
Description Invited Lecture -Religious diversity and change between national and immigrant Muslims in Greece. International Metropolis Conference. Panel on Religious Pluralism. Azores, September 2011 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Type Of Presentation keynote/invited speaker
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Our talk was followed by questions and discussions. This invited presentation also led to further collaborations and an invitation to give a keynote to a major international conference.

Our presentation had mainly academic impact. It lead to the participation in an advisory group of an International Research project entitled 'Religious Minorities, Integration and Place. Socio-spatial integration of Lisbon's religious minorities: residential patterns, choice and neighbourhood dynamics' which is funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology and coordinated by the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning, University of Lisbon, Portugal.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011
 
Description Invited Lecture -Social Integration and the Organisation of Religious Diversity among Immigrants in Greece. International Metropolis Conference, Tampere, Finland. Panel on 'Everyday' and Transnational Religion: Muslim Integration in European Cities. September 2013 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Type Of Presentation keynote/invited speaker
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Our presentation stimulated questions and discussion and lead to further involvement in international conferences and research network groups.

We were asked to give the keynote in an international conference on Diversity in the city.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
 
Description Invited Presentation -Ethnicity among Muslim communities in Greece: research themes and political perspectives. Research meeting on Islam in the European periphery, Study of Religions Department, Cork University, Ireland. November 2011. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Our presentation stimulate discussion and there was a questions and answers session afterwards. It also lead to the submission of an application to the HERA scheme. Although this application was not successful in raising further funding, the research collaborations established in this event have lead to further collaborative work both in terms of publications and invitations to present to other conferences as well as to further work to raise research funding.

After this event we were asked to participate in further research bids and to contribute to an international edited volume.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011
 
Description Islam in Greece: continuity and change among indigenous and immigrant Muslims. University of Sussex, Geography Research Seminars. October 2011. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact This was an invited presentation to talk about the Islam in Greece project at the Geography Research Seminars at the University of Sussex. The event was very successful and sparked questions and discussion.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011
 
Description Islam, Multiculturalism and Integration in the European Periphery, Symposium organized and convened for CRONEM 8th Annual conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact There were questions and discussion after our session. Our workshop also lead to the creation of a European network of researchers working on Islam in the European periphery and led to various research collaborations and submitting further proposals.

This event had mainly academic impact in that it resulted in a major publication (a forthcoming special issue in the journal (Contemporary Islam). After the event we were also invited to give presentations in other international conferences.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2012
 
Description Islam, identity and belonging in Greece. Symposium organized and convened for CRONEM 7th Annual conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Type Of Presentation workshop facilitator
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact After our session there were questions and discussion. There was a lot of interest in our study and we disseminated our research leaflets.

This event had both academic and policy impact. After our symposium and our presentation we were invited to give invited lectures in other international conferences and policy events. We were also invited to join an International Research Network of academics exploring Islam and Muslim communities in the periphery of Europe. Subsequently we worked together to on a HERA application for further funding and we are currently working on an edited volume on Islam in the European periphery.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011
 
Description Keynote -New Directions in the study of religion and ethnicity among migrant communities in South Europe: Lessons from the Greek case 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Our Keynote was received with a lot of interest and stimulated questions and discussion. It has also lead to a forthcoming publication of an edited volume on Diversity and Integration in the City.

After our talk we had a lot of interest about our project and we were further invited to collaborate with the organising committee of the conference in producing an edited volume.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Main Dissemiantion event organised in Athens, Greece (in Greek) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Type Of Presentation workshop facilitator
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This was a one-day Conference/Dissemination event that we organised in Athens. The conference attracted many leading academics in the field as well as a large number of policy makers and representatives of all the major migrant community and religious organisations in Greece. It also provided an extensive platform for presentations and discussion for younger researchers and PhD students.
This was a very successful and well-attended event. In the morning session of the workshop we disseminated and discussed the preliminary results of our project. In the next two sessions we had presentations from established academics and junior researcher as well as presentations from representatives of community organisations and policy makers.

The event was well covered in local and national media, including several articles in newspapers. After the dissemination event we distributed a research report to community organisations and governmental bodies.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011