Göran Larsson
Biographic Data
| ID | 341997 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Göran Larsson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Göran |
| FAMILY NAME | Larsson |
| SIGNATURE | LARSSON G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Gothenburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3343-6380 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 54 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 67 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 53 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The case for systematic reviews in religion: An under-used way of approaching previous research
This conceptual and methodological article argues for the increased use of systematic reviews in the study of religion. As our starting point, we analysed academic articles published in the same 50 journals that were the focus of Engler and Stausberg's (2024) critical assessment of the journal Religion's publication history. We investigate to what extent the 50 journals published systematic reviews between 2011 and 2024, finding that systematic r…
Policing in a globalized world: Some practical implications for policing and police training
This is a conceptual and explorative article that discusses how the police and policing in Sweden and the UK are affected by global and transnational conflicts, politics and events that spill over into local contexts. Our examples are the riots after the burning of the Quran in Sweden during Easter 2022 and the riots that followed the murders in Southport in the UK in summer 2024. To deal with these and similar conflicts, we argue that the police…
Past and Present References to Khaybar and the Jews in Medina: From Early Islamic Sources to Contemporary Antisemitism
Geo Widengren and the Non-Confessional Academic Study of Religions in Sweden: A Disciplinary History
Geo Widengren (1907–1996), Professor of the History of Religion and Psychology of Religion at Uppsala University from 1940 till 1973, was, like all individuals, a complex and often contradictory person. My focus in this short text is on Widengren’s scientific credo, which stresses that “religion” should be studied like any historical subject and the scholar should therefore not use personal or normative judgements when analyzing the religions of …
Muslims and social media: A scoping review
As Muslim individuals, communities, and institutions have been transformed by the digital revolution, a literature has developed that seeks to contribute knowledge about these changes. Pioneering studies in this field suggest that this literature has a focus on digital documents. This scoping literature review aims to find out whether this focus is still valid. Therefore, we examine all studies on Muslims and social media that can be retrieved fr…
Muslims, Minorities, and the Media: Discourses on Islam in the West By Laurens de Rooij
Journal Article Muslims, Minorities, and the Media: Discourses on Islam in the West By Laurens de Rooij Get access Muslims, Minorities, and the Media: Discourses on Islam in the WestBy Laurens de Rooij (Abingdon: Routledge, 2023. Routledge Research in Religion, Media and Culture), xx + 172 pp. Price HB £96.00. EAN 978–1032462660. Göran Larsson Göran Larsson University of Gothenburg E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this au…
Muslim Attitudes Towards Islamic Finance in Sweden: The Case of Loans with Interest
Sunni–Shia identities among young Norwegian Muslims: The remaking of Islamic boundaries
The potential spillover of Sunni–Shia conflicts from the Middle East to Muslim minorities in the West is an understandable concern. However, in line with Fredrik Barth’s idea that ‘boundary maintenance’ defines groups, we demonstrate that young Norwegian Muslims redraw Islamic boundaries and challenge traditional Muslim identities, notably along and across Sunni–Shia lines. In Norway, where Muslims from various backgrounds mix and interact, young…
Pondering the Legacy of Geo Widengren: Isolated Genius, or Uncritical Supporter of a Band of Brothers
This article is both an introduction to a collection of papers that critically discuss and evaluate the volume The Legacy, Life and Work of Geo Widengren and the Study of the History of Religions after World War II , which I edited and published with Brill in 2021, as well as an opportunity for me to think with and about the Swedish historian of religions, Geo Widengren (1907–1996). Widengren was the holder of the chair in the History of Religion…
Those Who Choose to Fight the Islamic State: Autobiographical Accounts of Western Volunteers
This article is a qualitative study of anti-IS fighters who have traveled from the West to join the military struggle in Syria and Iraq. while earlier studies have mainly analyzed open sources (i.e. social media or journalist’s reports), this article is based on an in-depth analysis of eight autobiographies written by individuals who traveled from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany and the U.S.A. to take part in the fight agains…
How is one supposed to sleep when the Ka‘ba is over there?’: Empirical Data on Swedish Muslims Performing the Hajj
The aim of this article is to present data from the first study using interviews with Swedish hajj pilgrims, conducted during 2016 and 2017 by the Institute for Language and Folklore, Gothenburg; the Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg; Södertörn University, Stockholm; and Gothenburg Univetsity. Among the questions asked within the framework of the project were, for example, how Swedish Muslims experience the hajj ; how they prepare for the trip …
Hidal, Sten, Ivan Engnell: En bibelforskares bana
Handbook of Leaving Religion
The Handbook of Leaving Religion introduces a neglected field of research with the aim to outline previous and contemporary research, and suggest how the topic of leaving religion should be studied in the future. The handbook consists of three sections: 1) Major debates about leaving religion; 2) Case studies and empirical insights; and 3) Theoretical and methodological approaches. Section one provides the reader with an introduction to key terms…
Mosques, Muslims, Methods: The Role of Mosques in Research about Muslims in Europe
Previous research has questioned the use of mosques as points of entry for research about Muslims in Europe. Part of the background has been a new emphasis on lived religion and a critique of a one-sided focus on religious institutions. We argue that some of this criticism is theoretically ill-founded and we also point out that some trends may make mosques more important in research about Muslims. In section 1, we go through the most important li…
Is Shia-Sunni Violence on the Rise? Exploring New Data on Intra-Muslim Organised Violence 1989-2017
This data study provides the first comprehensive empirical overview of organised violence across the Shia and Sunni Muslim divide, 1989–2017. We present a conceptual framework of sectarian dimensions of armed conflicts: sectarian identities; sectarian ideologies; and sectarian alliances. Our analysis demonstrates the extent to which organised violence has been fought across the Shia-Sunni divide. We also explore the sectarian identity dimension i…
The Use and Understanding of Michel Houellebecq’s Novel Submission in Today’s Europe: Introduction
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It’s Not mana, It’s High Gods: Another Conceptual History or Another Explanation, but a Similar Problem
In this short review and debate article I use Nicolas Meylan’s Mana: A History of a Western Category as a starting point for discussing the Swedish historian of religions Geo Widengren (1907-1996) and his theory of the so-called High God. Resembling mana , the High God theory is a second-order concept that is used to explain the origin of religion in the history of humankind
Museological Framings of Islam in Europe
The project Museological Framings of Islam in Europe (funded by the Swedish Research Foundation) aims to produce new and unique insights into the role of museums in staging exhibitions of Islam in
Why Is There So Little Shia-Sunni Dialogue? Understanding the Deficit of Intra-Muslim Dialogue and Interreligious Peacemaking
Despite a growth in fatalities resulting from organized violence with Shia-Sunni dimensions over the last two decades, in this study, we show, using existing data-bases on interreligious dialogue and peacemaking, that only less than two percent of the interreligious peacemaking organizations in the world are specialized in dialogue between Shias and Sunnis. Why is there so little institutionalized Shia-Sunni dialogue occurring when the need for s…
Moving In and Out of Islam
With empirical case studies from Western and Central Europe, the United States, Canada, and the Middle East, this anthology opens a new field of study by exploring people’s rationales for leaving, as well as converting to, Islam.
Disputed, Sensitive and Indispensable Topics: The Study of Islam and Apostasy
Using examples from my research on apostasy from Islam, in this article I address some basic methodological and theoretical issues in the study of religions. The article contains an outline of major Muslim debates about apostasy in Islamic traditions, why apostasy is punished, where it is punished and the methodological challenges involved in its study. My aim in doing so is to show why it is difficult, but also important, to study apostasy and t…
Aaron W. Hughes: Islam and the Tyranny of Authenticity: An Inquiry into Disciplinary Apologetics and Self-Deception
Disharmony is my business and business is good – a typical day at the office of a historian of religions. Reading and pondering upon Aaron W. Hughes’ Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam
The task of writing a critical and well-informed introduction to the study of Islam that includes the rise of a religious tradition, its texts, the development of the society, its institutions and intellectual traditions and contemporary history/ies is, of course, a version of mission impossible. The aim of the following article is to discuss Aaron W. Hughes’ Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam and to analyse the implications of Hughes ap…
Introduction: A collection of papers on Aaron W. Hughes’ textbook Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam
With the aid of Aaron W. Hughes' Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam, the contributors to this special issue provide examples and case studies that highlight cultural specific problems, both contemporary and academic, as well as classic problems within the study of religions, such as the tensions and differences between emic and etic perspectives, comparative religious studies, and theology and religious studies
Apostasy and Counter-narratives—Two Sides of the Same Coin: The Example of the Islamic State
From an academic point of view, the struggle over how to define what should be considered the “true” representation of Islam is perhaps best understood as a dispute over power, a question of who ha
Muslim claims-making in context: Comparing the Danish and the Swedish Muhammad cartoons controversies
The aim of this article is to investigate through a comparison of the Danish and the Swedish Muhammad cartoons controversies (1) why only the Danish controversy escalated into a conflict of global dimensions; and (2) what accounts for the differences in level and form of local Muslim claims-making in the two cases. The article takes advantage of the initial similarities of the two controversies in making a paired comparison, which provides an opp…
One cannot doubt the potential effect of these fatwas on modern Muslim society.” 1 Online Accusations of Disbelief and Apostasy: The Internet as an Arena for Sunni and Shia Muslim Conflicts
This article focuses on a number of fatwas published on the Sunni website Islamqa that, among many things, present negative understandings of Shia Islam. Before discussing the content of the fatwas, I offer a brief reconsideration of the major lines of conflict that divide Sunni and Shia Muslims both in history and at the present day. I then argue that, although contemporary tensions and hatred between different Muslim individuals and groups can …
The impact of global conflicts on local contexts: Muslims in sweden after 9/11 – the rise of Islamophobia, or new possibilities
This article presents the most important data from a Swedish interview survey on the situation of Islamic communities in Sweden following 9/11 and also discusses how global conflicts affect local communities, even though the latter may be separated from the former in time and space. It argues the need for more empirical data that can be analysed and used for comparisons with other minority groups in Europe and the United States in order to avoid …
Sunni–Shia identities among young Norwegian Muslims: The remaking of Islamic boundaries
The potential spillover of Sunni–Shia conflicts from the Middle East to Muslim minorities in the West is an understandable concern. However, in line with Fredrik Barth’s idea that ‘boundary maintenance’ defines groups, we demonstrate that young Norwegian Muslims redraw Islamic boundaries and challenge traditional Muslim identities, notably along and across Sunni–Shia lines. In Norway, where Muslims from various backgrounds mix and interact, young…
Mosques, Muslims, Methods: The Role of Mosques in Research about Muslims in Europe
Previous research has questioned the use of mosques as points of entry for research about Muslims in Europe. Part of the background has been a new emphasis on lived religion and a critique of a one-sided focus on religious institutions. We argue that some of this criticism is theoretically ill-founded and we also point out that some trends may make mosques more important in research about Muslims. In section 1, we go through the most important li…
Disputed, Sensitive and Indispensable Topics: The Study of Islam and Apostasy
Using examples from my research on apostasy from Islam, in this article I address some basic methodological and theoretical issues in the study of religions. The article contains an outline of major Muslim debates about apostasy in Islamic traditions, why apostasy is punished, where it is punished and the methodological challenges involved in its study. My aim in doing so is to show why it is difficult, but also important, to study apostasy and t…
Is Shia-Sunni Violence on the Rise? Exploring New Data on Intra-Muslim Organised Violence 1989-2017
This data study provides the first comprehensive empirical overview of organised violence across the Shia and Sunni Muslim divide, 1989–2017. We present a conceptual framework of sectarian dimensions of armed conflicts: sectarian identities; sectarian ideologies; and sectarian alliances. Our analysis demonstrates the extent to which organised violence has been fought across the Shia-Sunni divide. We also explore the sectarian identity dimension i…
Cyber-Islamophobia? The case of WikiIslam
Narratives of Inclusion and Exclusion: Islam and Muslims as a Subject of European Studies
Samforfattad introduktion till temanummer om Narratives of Inclusion and Exclusion. Inledningen ar skriven tillsammans med Riem Speilhaus, Erlangen university, Germany
The Fear of Small Numbers: Eurabia Literature and Censuses on Religious Belonging
The aim of this article is to analyse and compare the census statistics on Muslims in Europe provided by the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe with anti-Muslim estimates of the possible numbers of Muslims in Europe in order to give a comprehensive picture of how many individuals actually identify themselves as Muslims. Contrary to popular figures estimating that there are approximately forty to fifty million Muslims living in Europe (including Russia…
Those Who Choose to Fight the Islamic State: Autobiographical Accounts of Western Volunteers
This article is a qualitative study of anti-IS fighters who have traveled from the West to join the military struggle in Syria and Iraq. while earlier studies have mainly analyzed open sources (i.e. social media or journalist’s reports), this article is based on an in-depth analysis of eight autobiographies written by individuals who traveled from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany and the U.S.A. to take part in the fight agains…
Museological Framings of Islam in Europe
The project Museological Framings of Islam in Europe (funded by the Swedish Research Foundation) aims to produce new and unique insights into the role of museums in staging exhibitions of Islam in
Why Is There So Little Shia-Sunni Dialogue? Understanding the Deficit of Intra-Muslim Dialogue and Interreligious Peacemaking
Despite a growth in fatalities resulting from organized violence with Shia-Sunni dimensions over the last two decades, in this study, we show, using existing data-bases on interreligious dialogue and peacemaking, that only less than two percent of the interreligious peacemaking organizations in the world are specialized in dialogue between Shias and Sunnis. Why is there so little institutionalized Shia-Sunni dialogue occurring when the need for s…
Introduction: A collection of papers on Aaron W. Hughes’ textbook Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam
With the aid of Aaron W. Hughes' Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam, the contributors to this special issue provide examples and case studies that highlight cultural specific problems, both contemporary and academic, as well as classic problems within the study of religions, such as the tensions and differences between emic and etic perspectives, comparative religious studies, and theology and religious studies
Textbooks and Critical Readings—a Challenge for the Future
In this rejoinder I will make some comments about Emanuelsson’s brief text, “Islam and the Sui-generis Discourse: Representations of Islam in Textbooks Used in Introductory Courses of Religious Studies in Sweden,” and the comment it has received from Steven Ramey. Besides clarifying my own position in the debate, I hope that this reply will also start a discussion about pedagogical challenges (i.e., how to teach in the university) and how to writ…
Islam and disability: Perspectives in theology and jurisprudence
Islam and disability: perspectives in theology and jurisprudence." Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 22(3), pp. 367–368
A Recent Volume in the Kohlhammer Tosefta Series
This volume in the Kohlhammer Tosefta series of translation and commentary takes in the tractates Shekalim and Kippurim, both dealing primarily with Temple organization, ritual, and ceremony in the late Second Temple Period. It should be of interest to all engaged in any aspect of the study of this period. This review aims to highlight the excellent critical quality of the commentary, which is accessible to a wide audience, without ignoring its r…
On-line rituals: A new field of research: neo-pagan and Muslim cyber rituals
Although secularisation and institutional specialisation have reduced the importance and influence of churchoriented religion, people still have a need for religion and transcendence. By looking at two so-called on-line rituals — a neo-pagan blot and a Muslim dhikr, the author examines and illustrates how religiosity may be articulated on the Internet. Although Internet research is often discussed in relation to methodological and theoretical pro…
The impact of global conflicts on local contexts: Muslims in sweden after 9/11 – the rise of Islamophobia, or new possibilities
This article presents the most important data from a Swedish interview survey on the situation of Islamic communities in Sweden following 9/11 and also discusses how global conflicts affect local communities, even though the latter may be separated from the former in time and space. It argues the need for more empirical data that can be analysed and used for comparisons with other minority groups in Europe and the United States in order to avoid …
Cyber-Islamophobia? The case of WikiIslam
Some Recent Contributions to the Study of the Qur’ān
Jane Dammen McAuliffe (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to the Qur’ān. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 332 pp. Andrew Rippin, (ed.): The Blackwell Companion to the Qur’ān. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006, 560 pp.Manfred S. Kropp (ed.): Results of Contemporary Research on the Qur’ān: The Question of a Historio-Critical Text of the Qur’ān. Beirut: Beiruter texte und studien 100/Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2007, 198 pp
Camellos sarnosos, nobles sementales y la mala fama de la grasa de la cola de los lagartos. Animales en la epístola sobre la Šu‘ūbiyya de Ibn García
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Reading the Qur'ān in Latin Christendom, 1140–1560
206 Book Reviews / Journal of Religion in Europe 2 (2009) 199–210 Th omas E. Burman, Reading the Qur’ān in Latin Christendom, 1140–1560 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), 328 pp., 10 illus., ISBN 978-0-8122-4018-4 (cloth), 978-0-8122-2062-9 (pbk.), $59.95 (cloth), $24.95 (pbk). Th omas E. Burman’s Reading the Qur’ān in Latin Christendom, 1140–1560 is an excellent scholarly work that casts important light on Christian-Muslim r…
Muslim claims-making in context: Comparing the Danish and the Swedish Muhammad cartoons controversies
The aim of this article is to investigate through a comparison of the Danish and the Swedish Muhammad cartoons controversies (1) why only the Danish controversy escalated into a conflict of global dimensions; and (2) what accounts for the differences in level and form of local Muslim claims-making in the two cases. The article takes advantage of the initial similarities of the two controversies in making a paired comparison, which provides an opp…
Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Tariq Ramadan on Secularisation: Differences and Similarities
Looking Back at al-Andalus: The Poetics of Loss and Nostalgia in Medieval Arabic and Hebrew Literature
The Muslim Brothers in Europe: Roots and Discourse
A Different Approach to the History of Islam and Muslims in Europe: A North-Eastern Angle, or the Need to Reconsider the Research Field
While the ever more strongly felt presence of Muslims in western Europe has already stimulated numerous scholars of various social sciences to embark upon research on issues related to that presence, it is apparent that just a few studies and introductory text books have so far dealt with the evolution of Muslim communities in other parts of Europe, especially in countries of central, eastern, and northern Europe. Without appreciation of and comp…
Muslim Marriage in Western Courts: Lost in Transplantation
510 Book Reviews / Journal of Religion in Europe 4 (2011) 501–515 Pascale Fournier, Muslim Marriage in Western Courts: Lost in Transplantation (Farham: Ashgate, 2010), 228 pp., ISBN 9781409404415 (hardback), ISBN 9781409404422 (electronic), £55.00 Th e discussion of Islamic law and its interplay with Western legal traditions has become a research topic of growing interest for scholars in the fi elds of religious and Islamic studies and law. Pasca…
Islam and tattooing: An old question, a new research topic
Most Muslim theologians have argued on the basis of the ḥadīth-literature that tattooing is ḥarām (forbidden), but it is nonetheless possible to find both historical and contemporary examples indicating that, at different times and in different places, this art was practiced by certain Islamic groups. With specific reference to washm,or tattooing, it has been well documented that certain Muslim groups (e.g., the Berbers and the Bedouins) in place…
Islam and disability: Perspectives in theology and jurisprudence
Islam and disability: perspectives in theology and jurisprudence." Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 22(3), pp. 367–368
Women in classical Islamic law: A survey of the sources
Women in classical Islamic law: a survey of the sources." Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 22(3), pp. 371–372
The Fear of Small Numbers: Eurabia Literature and Censuses on Religious Belonging
The aim of this article is to analyse and compare the census statistics on Muslims in Europe provided by the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe with anti-Muslim estimates of the possible numbers of Muslims in Europe in order to give a comprehensive picture of how many individuals actually identify themselves as Muslims. Contrary to popular figures estimating that there are approximately forty to fifty million Muslims living in Europe (including Russia…
Angels in Islam: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī's
Angels in Islam: Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī's Al-ḥabāʾik fī akhbār al-malāʾik , by S.R. Burge, London and New York, Routledge, 2012, 338 pp., £85.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-415-67292-4 Even though belie
History strikes back! Scientific and pedagogical implications of the critical study of early Islam
The Sound of Satan: Different Aspects of Whispering in Islamic theology
The purpose of the article is to outline Islamic discourses on sound, more particularly whispering, found in the Qur’ān, the ḥadīth literature and contemporary online fatwas, with the aim of determining whether whispering has different connotations and meanings in different contexts, literary genres and ritual contexts. Examples discussed in the article are derived from a broad range of Islamic sources, such as the Qur’ān and its exegesis and the…
Islamismen., Bjørn Olav Utvik
Narratives of Inclusion and Exclusion: Islam and Muslims as a Subject of European Studies
Samforfattad introduktion till temanummer om Narratives of Inclusion and Exclusion. Inledningen ar skriven tillsammans med Riem Speilhaus, Erlangen university, Germany
British Muslim Fictions: Interviews with Contemporary Writers
Clair Chambers' book is rather unusual, but very stimulating. Contrary to most conventional studies, this is a collection of interviews written with the aim of giving voice to a wide range of so-ca
The Poetics of Iblis: Narrative Theology in the Qur’ān
This book is a fascinating and detailed reading of the stories or passages in the Qur'an that relate to the figure of Iblis. In sum, the Qur'an contains seven versions of the story of Iblis, that i
Sufism in the Contemporary Arabic Novel
Sociology (39 works) · Islam (32 works) · Philosophy (30 works) · Political science (28 works) · History (21 works) · Theology (21 works) · Islamic Studies and History (20 works) · Law (19 works) · Philosophy (19 works) · Religious studies (19 works)