The growing political resistance to the manifestations of Islamic practices in Europe from  dress code to circumcision and halal food, operates on the assumption that  religious practices of Muslims are inversely correlated to civic and political loyalties. Such an assumption contradicts two major empirical evidences :

First, all available data on religion in general shows the opposite, that religiosity actually increases civism, although it can be said that the data in Europe on this topic are much more sparse than in the USA,

Second, there is a lack of strong empirical data about European or American Muslims to back up such an assumption. Interestingly, the sparse quantitative surveys about Muslims do not address the question of whether Islam is an obstacle to or an asset in the political integration process, and do not provide any systematic comparison with other religious groups. The goal of this panel is to discuss existing knowledge on Muslims political participation in Europe in the broader framework of the role of religion, immigration, ethnicity (versus class/education and gender) on the political behaviors of European citizens as well as their representation in politics.