Introduction

Finland is unique among the Nordic countries in being the home of a small Tatar Muslim community since the 1870s; Muslims have only settled in numbers in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden since the late 1960s. The situation in Finland has, however, changed since the beginning of the 1990s, when immigration began to grow rapidly, new Muslim communities began to emerge, and pan-European debates and policy developments concerning Islam also came onto the scene. Whereas the historical Tatar Muslim community had generally not relied on external help but had organized its affairs internally, there is now an increasing number of external influences being exerted on the new Muslim communities (Martikainen, 2013b).

Muslims in Finland are at a crossroads, with different agendas being put forward by a variety of actors. Besides the issue of transnational Islamic movements, particularly in Europe, there are other key developments such as state interventions into Muslim affairs and interreligious activities with other religious traditions. As has been argued elsewhere (Martikainen, 2013b, 2014), two significant features of many of the processes concerning Islam and Muslims in Finland are the new set of actors that have only recently become interested in Islam-related topics and the changing organizational environment in which this is taking place. There is little in this new environment that can be understood through the historical relations between church and state; instead, a new constellation of religious, civil society, and state organizations and networks has emerged.