Jørgen Nielsen

Jørgen S. Nielsen is Professor Emeritus of Contemporary European Islam, Dept of Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham. Previously he was the Danish National Research Foundation Professor of Islamic Studies, Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen, until June 2013 and remains attached as an Affiliate Professor in the Faculties of Humanities and Theology. He has previously held academic positions in Beirut, Birmingham, Leiden, and Utrecht. From 2005 to 2007 he was Director of the Danish Institute in Damascus and Cultural Counsellor at the Danish Embassy.  Research has been focused on the situation of Muslims in Europe and mutual perceptions between Europe and the Arab world with a focus on religion, specifically Christian-Muslim relations. He is an editor of the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe and of the Journal of Muslims in Europe, and executive editor of Annotated Legal Documents on Islam in Europe (all Leiden: Brill). Other recent publications include Muslims in Western Europe (Edinburgh University Press, 1992, 2nd ed. 1995, 3rd ed. 2004; 4th ed. 2015 with Jonas Otterbeck); Methods and Contexts in the Study of Muslim Minorities: Visible and Invisible Muslims, ed. with Nadia Jeldtoft (London: Routledge, 2012); Muslim Political Participation in Europe, ed. (Edinburgh University Press, 2013); Belief, Law and Politics: What Future for a Secular Europe?, ed. with Marie-Claire Foblets, Katayoun Alidadi and Zeynep Yanasmayan, (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), and Islamic Studies in European Higher Education: Navigating Academic and Confessional Approaches, ed. with Stephen Jones (Edinburgh University Press, 2023).