PhD candidate Muhammad Ahsan Qureshi presented the draft of the introductory chapter to his dissertation where he examined the paradox of religious freedom in Finland through the case of the Grand Helsinki Mosque (GHM) project, which faced near-universal rejection between 2013 and 2017 despite constitutional protections and international commitments to religious rights. The study reveals how media narratives and political rhetoric subtly institutionalize Islamophobia, through the securitization of Islamic spaces and cultural exclusion disguised as secular neutrality.
The Grand Helsinki Mosque and the Securitization of Islamic Spaces
