The number of mosques in Denmark is rising steadily. The number has increased by almost 50 per cent since 2006 and many things indicate that quite substantial changes have taken place in the ‘mosque environment’ during the last 10 years.

Lene Kühle (professor mso, Study of Religion) will introduce an ongoing research project, partly funded by the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs, which maps mosques in Denmark. The methods and preliminary results of the study will be presented and discussed. The presentation will also address the question of doing research on a topic which is a highly politicized.

Stine Jønsson (Anthropology) will discusss the Mariam Mosque and Denmark's first female imams. In February 2016 Sherin Khankan announbced the opening of a new mosque in Copenhagen. The opening received massive media coverage in both national and international media, as Khankan was one of the two female imams, a phenomenon that does not exist elsewhere in Scandinavia. Based on her thesis fieldwork, Stine Jønsson will discuss the new mosque and its female constituency, and how it feels to start a new religious institution against resistance from both Muslim and non-Muslim communities.