State Policies toward Islam in Twenty Countries in Western Europe: The Accommodation of Islam Index

Abstract

This study creates an index that reveals the extent to which Western European countries accommodate Islamic traditions and practices. The index covers six realms in which Muslim communities seek accommodation: (1) education, (2) chaplaincy services, (3) mosques, (4) cemeteries, (5) Islamic attire, and (6) halal food. The study examines and quantifies the state policies in twenty Western European countries on both national and municipal levels with a particular focus on actual implementation. Results indicate that Western European countries vary widely in terms of their accommodation of Islam. There are also notable within-country differences, due in part to regional governments, as they also make and/or implement policy decisions. Both between- and within-country variations in the accommodation of Islam reveal a variety of nuances, and blur dual categories, such as ethnic-civic and assimilationist-integrationist.

Institutionalization of Islam in Secular Europe: The Influence of State–Religion Relations on Anti‐Muslim Attitudes

“…Legislation provides more detailed information, including but not limited to the policies toward minority religions, including but not limited to their recognition or registration (e.g., Confessions Act, Bulgaria, 2002;Religious Freedom Act, Portugal, 2001;Religious Freedom Act, Slovenia, 2007). (Kaya, 2017), is 0.39 (n = 20, p = 0.0934). The correlation with multiculturalist policies in general, as measured by the Multiculturalist Policy Index (MPI, 2010), is 0.47 (n = 16, p = 0.0676).…”

Islamicity indices: an extensive systematic literature review

“…Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden have consistently been in the best ten of the Legal and Governance Islamicity index, whereas Germany is almost there. The best 30 countries are practically similar, except for Chile, which has ascended to the 30th place, and Korea, which has tumbled from it (Kaya, 2017). The Legal and Governance Islamicity index again shows that Muslim countries lag.…”

A stranger at home? A multilevel analysis of anti-Muslim sentiment in Western European societies

“…The main independent variable is the index of the accommodation of Islam policies (Kaya, 2017). The index ranges from 0 to 1.…”

“…The index captures six major cultural aspects in which Muslims seek accommodation: Islamic attire; cemeteries; chaplaincy; mosques (composite of three variables: permits, architecture, and call-to-prayer); education (composite of two variables: course on Islam in public schools and state funding for schools owned by Islamic institutions); and halal food (composite of two variables: ritual slaughter and provision of halal food). To measure the level of accommodation, Kaya (2017) evaluated the above six areas in terms of the presence of legal restrictions, the level of state support, and the difficulty of obtaining a permit for certain activities. Each aspect was assigned a score between 0 and 1 with increments of 0.25.…”

“…2.Based on the accommodation of Islam index (Kaya, 2017), we consider that level of accommodation of Islam is high when it has an overall score above the sample median on the following aspects: presence of Islam attires in public institutions; permission to observe Islamic burial rituals and traditions; equal enjoyment of rights and privileges to member of the Muslim clergy; no restrictions on the presence and operation of mosques; equal access to state funding for Islamic schools and to impart courses on Islam in schools; and, availability of halal food.…”