Political Participation of Muslim Citizens in Europe: What Does Religion Has to Do with It?

This paper will present findings on the influence of Islam on political participation from an analysis of the Muslim respondents from the European Values Study  (2008) and the World Values (2005-2013) data and comparing with catholic and Jewish respondents from the same data bases with a focus on France, Germany, the UK and the Netherlands. Our research shows that, in ways similar to other religious groups, some aspects of the Islamic religion (for example mosque attendance) favor political participation, while others (like religious self identification) do not. However, mosque attendance (like church attendance) is not on its own a significant predictor of political participation. The findings in this paper  highlight other dimensions, such as ethnic affiliation, immigrant status, and residential distribution,  which seem to influence the level and intensity of political participation and will require a more systematic examination and comparison with other religious groups across European countries.