Believing and belonging? Religious salience and politicality of young Bosnian Muslims in the time of Islamophobia

Abstract

After fleeing war-torn Yugoslavia, the Bosnian Muslim diaspora quickly developed institutions of sociability and solidarity in ‘the West.’ Although they align with a moderate and secular Islam, the generation born after the war endures a climate of hate and hostility. This study investigates how young Bosnian Muslims nurture political participation and keep peddling the stereotype that Muslims threaten liberal democracy. It looks at how the group under study responds to the disadvantages inherent in the post-migrant situatedness and religious identity in Belgium, Germany, and Poland. Collected qualitative data show that a high level of religious salience does not obstruct integration and civic engagement but instead stimulates unconventional and non-institutional political participation. The findings also indicate that young Muslims with Bosnian roots do not resent their family heritage and Muslim community. Yet they self-reiterate a sense of remote-ness with other post-diasporic Muslim communities by associating themselves with ‘European Islam.’