The project has an ambitious agenda to explore the factors shaping the religiosity of second and third-generation Muslims and their desire to integrate into host societies across five European countries: Austria, Bosnia, France, Germany, and the UK. It has three major contributions, each critical in its own right, but together they provide a particularly powerful analytical lens.
First, the project examines the strategies and teachings of major Islamic movements in these countries to determine how they adapt their teachings to the local context. A detailed study of the primary and secondary level Islamic curricula taught by these movements, and their methods of teaching, has never been carried out before. Previous studies have focused on their demographics or organization but rarely on their content.
Second, the project maps Muslim populations and Islamic networks across the five countries, profiling the main institutions and actors within each network. Drawing on census and other sources of data, it also provides a rich understanding of any striking characteristics of Muslim populations compared to the average population.
Finally, the core of the project investigates whether mosque-dense, Muslim-dense communities play an important role in transmitting religiosity to the next generation of Muslims, and if so, how. No other project has compared these dimensions individually or collectively, which makes this project uniquely powerful. The five conuntry comparative lens is also unique.
The findings will enrich theoretical debates in many fields, including theories of multiculturalism, and will have significant policy relevance. The integration of Muslims into mainstream society remains a key concern for European politics and social cohesion, making this project's insights highly valuable.
