Muslim Pan-Ethnic Organizations and Political Engagement across Europe

This paper explores how religious communities encourage political participation across ethnic groups and national contexts. Mosques in Europe provide a community for individuals from various national backgrounds but experiencing similar levels of discrimination and segregation from the majority. However, research on Muslims in Europe has yet to investigate the relationship between perceived discrimination, mosque attendance, and political engagement. Under imposed categorizations from the majority, pan-ethnic organizations have been found to foster group identities and be a tool for political engagement. Because of bright religious boundaries in Europe, I argue that mosques function as pan-ethnic organizations and are a place for descendants of immigrants to organize and participate in the political mainstream. I analyze the political engagement of second and third generation Muslim immigrants in nineteen European countries from 2008 to 2014 using the European Social Survey. At the national level, the Migrant Integration Policy Index provides measures of the strength of anti-discrimination, multiculturalism, and political openness policies. I expect mosques to connect disenfranchised Muslims with the political mainstream, especially under policies legitimizing minority communities.