Experiences of Muslims in Western Europe

Good Muslims and Good Citizens

“…The leftist parties, therefore, win the majority of the votes of the Muslim minority electorate and are considered the natural home for politicians from Muslim backgrounds. In the Netherlands and the UK, Muslims are even accepted as political figures in society as mayors, such as Ahmed Aboutaleb who became mayor of Rotterdam in 2009 and mayor of London in 2016, and Sadiq Khan (Scharbrodt, 2021).…”

“…Islamophobia is used to describe various forms of racism and anti-Muslim hatred. Across Western Europe, various organizations exist to monitor, record and combat Islamophobia, including both Muslims and non-Muslims (Scharbrodt, 2021).…”

“…Individual Muslims in Western Europe are not merely recipients of traditional forms of Islam or blind adherents of transnational Islamic movements and trends, but agents in their religious constructs who redefine and practice Islam according to their particular needs and aspirations shaped by the diverse national contexts in which they find themselves. in Western Europe (Scharbrodt, 2021).…”

“…Muslims in European and American countries, for example, have to face problems such as negative media stereotypes, marriage to non-Muslims, difficulty or limited halal food, facilities for houses of worship that are far from ideal, local values that (sometimes) are not following Islamic teachings, constitutions that not fully in favor of the Islamic religion, some residents are Islamophobic and work that is contrary to religious teachings and so on (Hasirudin, 2021, p. 10). Apart from that, most Muslim minorities who were initially immigrants also had to face complex socio-political problems, starting from identity crises, discrimination, racism, and anti-migrant movements to Islamophobia (Dianto, 2020;Lukens-Bull & Woodward, 2021;Scharbrodt, 2021).…”