Ten years after the success of The Road to Mecca, Jan Leyers sets out to explore Islam in Europe. Is there such a thing as a European version of Islam? And is that something that Muslims themselves want? Can the prevalent distrust of Islam be overcome? In search of answers he travels from Sarajevo to Brussels. He accompanies Bosnian muftis on their pilgrimage, visits a Muslim youth camp in the Hungarian countryside, meets an Austrian pastry chef specialized in ‘halal Strudel’ and strolls through London with the head of a British sharia council. He listens to traditional believers, and recent converts, to liberals and fundamentalists, to the voice of the expert and that of the street.
The result is a fascinating and adventurous book, that allows a glimpse of a world that can’t be summed up by numbers or statistics. A story that is disquieting and moving, as much as it is hopeful.