For centuries, the Islamic world has been represented as the 'other' within European identity constructions - an 'other' perceived to be increasingly at odds with European forms of modernity and culture. With the perceived gap between Islam and Europe widening, leading scholars in this work come together to provide genuine and realistic analyses about perceptions of Islam in the West. The book bridges these analyses with in-depth case studies from Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey and other parts of the European Union. This study goes beyond the usual dichotomies of 'clashes of civilizations' and 'cultural conflict' to try to understand the numerous, diverse and multifaceted ways - some conflictual, some peaceful - in which cultural exchanges have taken place historically, and which continue to take place, between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds.

Hakan Yilmaz is Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Bogazici University, Istanbul. Educated at Bogazici University, he holds a PhD from the Department of Political Science, Columbia University. He is the author of Placing Turkey on the Map of Europe (2005), as well as various chapters and articles in journals such as the Middle East Journal. Cagla E. Aykac is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Fatih University, Istanbul. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris. Educated at Brown University and Bogazici University, she has worked as a researcher for private and public institutions such as the Open Society Institute (OSI), the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the European Research Council (ERC).