BY DAILY SABAH
(DAILY SABAH) Muslim communities in Europe, who make up a significant portion of the minorities in the region, are not proportionately represented in the political sphere, a study said Monday.
The study, “Institutionalization of Ethnocultural Diversity and the Representation of European Muslims” by associate professor Şener Aktürk published by the Cambridge University Press, focused on the comparison of the situation in 26 European countries over the course of 11 years and revealed stark contrasts between them.
France, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Britain and Germany make up the countries in which the Muslim populations are underrepresented in proportion to their population, while in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Romania and Serbia, Muslims have high representation figures, followed by Croatia, Finland, Montenegro and Norway.
The study argued that the institutionalization of ethnocultural diversity facilitates the more proportional representation of religious minorities.
“Such a multiethnic and multicultural institutionalization inculcate the idea that the polity is made up of multiple collectivities with perceptibly different cultural features,” the study said.
For instance, in Belgium, where around 6% of the population is estimated to be Muslim, Muslim lawmakers are dispersed among five political parties with totally different ideologies, including socialist, center-left and center-right ones. They are freely able to compete in federal and regional elections without having to conceal their identities, in stark contrast to France, where only secular Muslims are able to win.
