The process of situating Islam and reproducing Islamic knowledge in Western Europe encompasses three key dimensions: the country of origin global Islam and the country of immigration. This study focuses on Turkey as the country of origin and the Netherlands as the country of immigration. Turkey is officially a secular (laik) democratic republic that incorporates Islamic values into its foundation. On the other hand the Netherlands is a secular democratic monarchy primarily rooted in a Judeo-Christian value system.

The pluralistic and "post-secular" public sphere of the Netherlands as conceptualized by Jürgen Habermas  and José Casanova plays a role in modifying the functions of imams imported from Turkey. In the context of this study "post-secular" refers to the acknowledgment that religion is permitted to participate actively in society and can be visibly present in the public sphere. This aligns with the idea that the contemporary world is undergoing a process of "de-secularization" allowing religion to be recognized as one of the actors in the public realm (Berger 1999; Taylor Casanova & McLean 2012).