The political culture of Muslims in Europe

Does Islam make people undemocratic? In this paper we examine political culture among Muslims in Europe in order to gain more insight into the compatibility of Islam and democracy. The absence of empirical information on how Muslims in Europe view democracy is striking, given that Muslims constitute the largest religious minority in Europe, given the current anti-Islamic climate in many European countries, and given that the acceptance of democratic values is a necessary precondition for democracy. Data from the European Values Study are used to examine political culture among Muslims throughout Europe. The results are mixed. Although Muslims are less democratic on some aspects of political culture (i.e. political interest and political activism), they have significantly more trust in institutions than non-Muslims do. This chapter also assesses the sources of differences in political culture. The results indicate that both modernization (i.e. educational level and income) and cultural factors (i.e. religious strength and ethnicity) explain differences in political culture between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe.