Jorgen S. Nielsen
BA in Arabic and MA in Middle East area studies, specialising in Islamic law and history at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. PhD in Arab history at the American University of Beirut.
From 1974 worked as a researcher at the Institute for Palestine Studies, Beirut, compiling and editing the annual International Documents on Palestine.
In early 1978 became Lecturer in Islam at the Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations (CSIC) at Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, United Kingdom. Developed research and publication on Muslims in Europe, publishing numerous articles in the field and editing the Research Papers: Muslims in Europe (1979-1989). Director of the Centre 1988-2001. In 1996 was made an Honorary Professor in the Department of Theology of the University of Birmingham. Appointed Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Birmingham, in August 1999 when CSIC was integrated into the Department of Theology of the University as part of the new Graduate Institute of Theology and Religion, Director of which 2001-4.
Regularly lectures and participates in conferences in various parts of the world, including Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Iran, the Philippines, Central Asia, the United States and various European countries. Has worked as consultant to churches and Muslim agencies on the situation of Muslims in Europe as well as to governments, the Council of Europe and to the European Commission. Is a Trustee and Board member of the International Center for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations, Sofia, Bulgaria, and member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Copenhagen University Priority Research Area "Religion in the 21st Century".
Current research is concentrating on the Islamic debate on religious pluralism and relations with the West, as well as continuing work on Islam in Europe.
Research awards held include an Edward Cadbury Charitable Trust grant for a Kazan conference on the ‘Christian-Muslim frontier’ (1994), a British Academy personal research grant to study contemporary Islamic thinking in Lebanon and Jordan (1995), a European Commission grant towards a Jordan conference on ‘Arabs and the West’ (1998), an ESRC research project grant (as lead applicant) on an international Sufi organisation as part of the Transnational Communities Programme (1998-2001), a European Commission grant (as joint leader) to survey the situation of Muslims in Europe (2000-1), a British Academy grant for a seminar in Sofia on 'Sufism in Bulgaria' (2000), and contracts for the European Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) to report on Islamophobia in the EU15 after 11 September 2001 (2002), and policy considerations for Muslims in Luxembourg (2004).
Apart from over one hundred articles in various journals on subjects relating to Muslims in Europe, Middle Eastern affairs, Arab history and Christian-Muslim relations, publications include:
Editor of the book series Muslim minorities published by Brill, Leiden, Netherlands
- Secular Justice in an Islamic State: Mazalim under the Bahri Mamluks (Leiden: Netherlands Institute for the Near East, 1985)
- Muslims in Western Europe (Edinburgh University Press, 1992, 2nd ed. 1995, 3rd ed. 2004)
- Religion and Citizenship in Europe and the Arab World as editor (London: Grey Seal, 1992)
- Christian Arabic Apologetics during the Abbasid Period edited jointly with S.K.Samir (Leiden: E.J.Brill, 1994)
- The Christian-Muslim Frontier as editor (London: I.B.Tauris, 1998)
- Arabs and the West: Mutual Images as joint editor with S.Khasawneh (Amman: University of Jordan, 1998)
- Towards a European Islam (London: Macmillan, 1999)
- Ethnology of Sufi
orders: theory and practice, joint ed. A. Zheliazkova (Sofia: IMIR, 2001)
- Convergences
musulmanes: Aspects contemporains de l’islam dans l’Europe élargie, ed.
jointly with F. Dassetto and B. Maréchal (Louvain: Academia Bruylant, 2001)
- Summary report on Islamophobia in the EU after 11 September 2001, jointly with C. Allen (Vienna: EUMC, 2002).
- Muslim networks and transnational communities in and across Europe, ed. jointly with S. Allievi (Leiden: Brill, 2003).
- Muslims in the enlarged Europe: Religion and society, ed. jointly with B. Maréchal, S.Allievi and F.Dassetto (Leiden: Brill, 2003).