Conspicuously, Islam has become a key concern in most European societies with respect to issues of immigration, integration, identity, values and inland security. As the mere presence of Muslim minorities fails to explain these debates convincingly, new questions need to be asked: How did »Islam« become a topic? Who takes part in the debates? How do these debates influence both individual as well as collective »self-images« and »image of others«?

Introducing Switzerland as an under-researched object of study to the academic discourse on Islam in Europe, this volume offers a fresh perspective on the objective by putting recent case studies from diverse national contexts into comparative perspective.