Theories of the State Accommodation of Islamic Religious Practices in Western Europe

Abstract

In their work on Muslims in Western Europe, social scientists often employ four theories to explain the state accommodation of Muslim minorities’ religious practices: resource mobilisation theory, political opportunity structure theory, ideological theories, and approaches highlighting the influence of church–state relations. In this article, I propose a dynamic-compound framework which outlines the interactions between these four theories, and argue that it is necessary to include a fifth independent variable to account for the religious traditions characteristic of a particular group. In analysing the state accommodation of the religious practices of Muslim minorities, taking the institutional framework of Islam into account clarifies the impact of church–state structures, based on Christianity and a history of conflict between church and state in Europe.

Keywords:

• Muslim Minorities
• Church–State Relations
• Western Europe
• Islam

Notes

1. See article ‘Testing the Limits of Tolerance’, Deutsche Welle, 16 March 2006. Online at http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1935900,00.html

2. In the current Dutch parliament, 10 out of 150 MPs are Muslim (6.7 per cent); the ratio of the Muslim population is approximately 6 per cent.

3. Mansour Kamardine was elected to the National Assembly in 2005, from one of the territoires d'outre-mer (overseas territories), the island of Mayotte. In the 1997 and 2002 elections, 20 and 21 MPs respectively of North African origin (born in Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia) were elected to the National Assembly, yet none were Muslims. Currently, in France, two out of the 78 members of the European Parliament, and three out of the 331 senators are Muslim. For a complete list of names, see http://users.skynet.be/suffrage-universel/fr/frmielan.htm.

4. Published annually in the SOPEMI Trends in International Migration report.

5. The January 2003 figures from the Danish Ministry of Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs give an unemployment rate of 12 per cent for immigrants and their descendents but only 4 per cent for native Danes. Sweden's Muslims have unemployment rates four to ten times higher than non-Muslims, depending on ethnicity (see www.euro-islam.info).

6. The exact question posed to the respondents was ‘Please tell me if you have a very favourable, somewhat favourable, somewhat unfavourable, or very unfavourable opinion of Muslims’. These percentages are the sum of respondents answering ‘very unfavourable’ and ‘somewhat unfavourable’.

7. The French Organization against Islamophobia (CCIF) was established in 2003 to monitor acts of intolerance and discrimination against Muslims. In its first report, the CCIF listed more than 50 incidents, along with a number of websites propagating anti-Muslim sentiment. In 2003, the National Federation of Anti-Discrimination Bureaus (NFAB) registered 270 allegations of religious discrimination. However, there was a significant upswing in attacks after the murder of Theo van Gogh in November 2004. A report from the Anne Frank Foundation found 106 violent anti-Muslim incidents in the month following the murder, while anti-discrimination bureaus recorded 40–50 attacks on individual Muslims during the same period. Most of these were verbal (www.euro-islam.info).

8. See http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2003/20031660.htm for a complete text of this regulation.

9. Most scholars present this issue as training programmes for ‘imams’, where the imam is framed as a religious authority or clergyman who has parallel rights and responsibilities to a Christian one. However, in mainstream Sunni Islam, followed by the majority of Muslims, the term imam refers to someone who leads congregational prayer, and is selected from the congregation at the beginning of every service. Since Islam does not sanction clergy, this policy issue may be misrepresented. Yet, in modern times, due to demanding work schedules, people who are knowledgeable about Islamic teachings take on the duty of leading prayers at a single mosque and consult Muslims on matters of religion. In reality, therefore, what is at stake here is the provision of educational facilities for every Muslim to learn about his or her religion.

10. See S. Suteau: ‘Muslim political participation in Western Europe’, online at www.euro-islam.info/PDFs/political_participation_west_europe.pdf.

11. Concordat signifies a church–state constitution where the state recognises certain religious groups and extends to them privileges such as public funding for schools and tax-exempt status.

12. The Nordic Way, http://www.nordicway.com/search/Citizenship.htm, accessed 15 April 2006.

13. For instance, during the life of the Prophet Muhammad in the Madina contract, adherents of multiple faiths co-existed peacefully, and believers of other faiths were offered the possibility of being judged according to their own laws.

14. Information for Persons Applying for Family Reunification in Norway, issued by the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration, online at http://www.udi.no/upload/Publikasjoner/full%20versjon-engelsk.pdf, accessed 15 April 2006.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eren Tatari

Eren Tatari is PhD Candidate in the Political Science Department of the University of Indiana