What did Jan Hjärpe choose from the Islamic basket? A study of the dominant voice on Islam in Sweden, 1980–2000

This chapter analyses the non-Muslim Islam of a Swedish academic, Professor

Jan Hjärpe, who was the most prominent voice in the public sphere

of Sweden from 1979 until the first years of the twenty-first century.2 While

Hjärpe was always nuanced when writing about Islam, he produced – mainly

as side-effect of choices – certain normalities and interpretations of Islam.

I argue that these can be seen as expressions of non-Muslim Islam. This chapter

is not a critique of Hjärpe’s writing, which has by and large stood the test of

time, but a case-study aiming to discuss researchers’ awareness and control

of the logical consequences of choices of words and topics. It addresses non-

Muslim Islam as an often-unintended by-product of scholarly writing.