Islam in Context: Opportunities for Inter-Cultural Relations in Europe

This paper explores the hypothesis that inter-cultural relations among Muslims and the autochthonous populations in Europe vary according to the prevailing discourse conveyed in the public domain, and hence, the opportunities stemming in terms of public visibility and cultural recognition of certain actors and identities. We also assess the impact of a number of institutional dimensions that may be relevant beyond discourse such as cultural rights, religious rights, and anti-discrimination rights. The analysis is conducted in six European countries of large Muslims’ settlement, namely, Belgium, Britain, Germany, Switzerland, and The Netherlands. The analysis will focus on cross-national variance, but also on cross-ethnic variance so as highlight differences among different groups and between these latter and the autochthonous populations. In line with previous research, we expect that discursive opportunities are crucial for explaining social distance in the field of Islam. A number of broader implications of this finding are discussed.