CIS public talk: When non-Muslims define Islam

Textbook introductions to Islamic studies often frame the interpretation of Islam as an internal Muslim endeavor.

Yet in contemporary Europe, the most visible and influential interpretations of Islam frequently come from non-Muslims: politicians, commentators, influencers, journalists, and conspiracist theorists.

These actors routinely cite the Qur’an, define “what Islam really is,” and disseminate their interpretations primarily to non-Muslim publics. In many domains, non-Muslim articulations of Islam may even be more authoritative than those produced by Muslims. Despite this, such forms of interpretation have received strikingly little systematic scholarly attention.

Drawing on results from the Non-Muslim Islams research project at the University of Copenhagen, this lecture outlines an emerging research agenda for studying these interpretive practices. It examines how non-Muslim interpretations of Islam are produced, circulated, and institutionalized in Europe, and thus opens up a new field of inquiry concerned with Islam as a public object shaped by actors who are not themselves Muslim.

About the speaker

Dr Jesper Petersen is Associate Professor at Copenhagen University and Starting Grant research leader on the Non-Muslim Islam project. His latest book, The Islamic Juridical Vacuum, was published by Brill in 2025. Petersen received his PhD in History of Religions (with a specialisation in Islamic Studies) from Lund University.

About this event

This public talk is hosted by the Centre of Islamic Studies at Cambridge as part of their Middle East in Cambridge series. 

Tea and coffee will be available from 17:00.