Institutions and rights: how integrated is Islam?
The integration of Muslims into European societies is considered one of the greatest social challenges in Europe. The authors of the collected volume After Integration: Islam, Conviviality and Contentious Politics in Europe examine the subject of integration from a completely different perspective. They analyse the degree to which Islam has already been integrated into European societies on the legal, political, and institutional levels. The book includes theoretical articles on the integration of Islam as well as ten chapters examining countries including Sweden, Switzerland, and Austria.
The editors, Ines Michalowski of the WZB’s research unit Migration, Integration, Transnationalization and Marian Burchardt of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, reveal that, while all the countries under examination had strengthened Muslims’ rights between 1980 and 2008, there are major differences among individual nation-states. The role of the media is also examined. The authors of the chapters on France and Belgium each show how the media can negatively influence public debate on protecting religious rights.