At the time of Jørgen S. Nielsenâs first book publication with Brill nobody knew that this would be the start of a very fruitful collaboration, resulting in a rapidly expanding number of publications on Muslims in Europe and elsewhere under his careful and dedicated editorship. The publication in question was Muslim Networks and Transnational Communities in and across Europe (2002), which Jørgen edited with Stefano Allievi. Its publication would mark the beginning of a long list of Brill publications that involve Jørgen in one capacity or another.
As one of the founding editors of our Muslim Minorities book series, Jørgen has supervised the publication of no less than 28 academic books in the series to date (not including the present volume), both edited volumes and monographs, discussing Muslims as a minority all over Europe, and as far away as New Zealand.
In 2007, Jørgen and Brill first exchanged ideas about developing an annual publication on the situation of Muslims in Europe. This new and unparallelled reference work would include a country-by-country summary of essential data, offering basic statistics on Muslims in Europe, surveys of legal status and arrangements, existing Muslim organizations, as well as an analysis and research articles of current issues and themes affecting Muslims in Europe and a book review section of published works of significance. Never one to shy away from a significant challenge, Jørgen supported these ambitious ideas and became the projectâs editor-in-chief. In its early days, the Yearbook was supported by five institutions across Europe, all recruited from Jørgenâs large network of colleagues, peers and friends. Together with a dedicated editorial board, Jørgen succeeded in bringing together 52 different contributors to write on Muslims in 37 European different countries. This number would expand to 46 countries and even more contributors in the following years.
The first volume of the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe appeared in September 2009, only two years after the initial exchange of ideas between Brill and Jørgen had started. This is certainly no small accomplishment, because, as Jørgen himself once shared with me, âworking with academics is a bit like herding cats.â Of course, he did not consider himself to be an exception to this rule. I will neither confirm nor deny whether this is true, but the fact that Jørgen succeeded in getting this project off the ground in such a short amount of time certainly attests to his professionalism, dedication, hard work and enthusiasm.
yme 1 turned out as a hefty volume of 575 pages, followed by volume 2 consisting of more than 700 pages in 2010, and growing even further to an impressive 768 pages in 2011. Now covering 46 European countries, the Yearbook is in its 9th volume year and is still going strong on the foundations laid by Jørgen. On top of that, volume 1 was translated into Bosnian in 2011.
Next to his work for the Muslim Minorities book series and the Yearbook, Jørgen also found time to serve as the first editor-in-chief of the Journal of Muslims in Europe from 2012â2015. This journal started in 2012 as a spin-off from the analysis section of the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe when that section became too large for the Yearbook itself. Under his dedicated editorship this new journal quickly proved very successful, filling a gap in the existing literature. Recognition of its success showed in its almost immediate inclusion in one of the largest and selective abstracting and indexing services in the world: SCOPUS.
Jørgen is currently working on a series on legal documents on Islam in Europe. The Annotated Legal Documents on Islam in Europe consist of an annotated collection of currently valid legal documents affecting the status of Islam and Muslims in Europe. The project will cover the 28 member states of the European Union (including Croatia), Norway and Switzerland, the European Union and the European Court of Justice, and the European Court of Human Rights. To date 15 volumes have been published: Poland, Cyprus, Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Estonia, Croatia, Belgium, Latvia, Italy, France, Greece, Switzerland, Finland, Lithuania, and Sweden. The project will culminate in an online database, creating the only database and reference work of its kind on this topic.
Of course, Jørgenâs contributions to academia in general, and the study of Muslims in Europe in particular, extend far beyond Brillâs publication programme. One only has to throw a quick glance at his long list of publications in this volume to see the extent of his research. His numerous publications have not only shaped Brillâs publishing programme, but have also defined the research field on Muslims in Europe.
I want to congratulate the editors of the present volume, and Niels in particular, for taking the initiative of putting this well-deserved volume together in Jørgenâs honour. It has been a pleasure and a privilege working with Jørgen over the past 8 years and I look forward to working together for many more years to come.
Nicolette van der Hoek
Acquisitions Editor, BRILL