Conclusion : Impacting religions, impacting societies

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discusses borderland religions resist empire and act citizenship because they are religions and religions often far away from the cathedrals, priests, and mainstream dogmatics. The empire can build bigger walls and employ more sophisticated technologies to protect the dream of the Abendland to establish an even stricter control in the Mediterranean and construct non-places of immigration. Europe as a whole has often seen itself as an Abendland – a mythical space where the sun will set every evening, clothing its inhabitants in a mysterious light and a noble history. Europe's borders were and to some extent are defined by the conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism, but now those borders are increasingly defined by an old enemy, namely the world of Islam.