Europe's Encounter with Islam: What Future?

Abstract

The article examines the future of Europe's encounter with Islam. The author states that Turkey's interest in joining the European Union was to provide the country with a political and juridical framework to enlarge and enforce the institutionalization of democratic rights and freedoms in Turkey. The country provided a site for studying Islamic movements in a politically secularist, pluralistic context. Islamization in Turkey is not the same way as in other Muslim-majority countries, where Islam is taking over political power and gaining influence in all aspects of life.