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Securitization of Islam and religious discrimination: Religious minorities in Western democracies, 1990–2008

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Comparative European Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

This study draws substantially on ‘securitization’ theory to examine whether religious discrimination against Muslims as compared with other religious minorities is disproportionately higher in Western democracies. We explore variation in the treatment of religious minorities in the West using a special version of the Religion and State-Minorities Round 2 (RAS2-M) data set. We analyse the extent and causes of 29 different kinds of religious discrimination against 86 religious minorities in 27 Western democracies (coded yearly from 1990 to 2008). The results support the securitization argument showing that Muslims suffer from higher levels of discrimination in comparison with other religious minorities, especially since 2001.

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Notes

  1. For more on theory of securitization, rules of securitization, securitization policies, see Balzacq (2011). For desecuritization process, see Wæver (1995). For an internal critique and a conceptual reconstruction of the theory, see Stritzel (2007). For emerging debates on securitization theory, see Wæver (2011), Floyd (2011), Guzzini (2011), Albert and Buzan (2011), Huysmans (2011), Pram Gad and Petersen (2011), Schou Tjalve (2011), Stritzel (2011), Villumsen Berling (2011), Williams (2011) from the Security Dialogue special issue on the Politics of Securitization. For critiques of securitization, see Eriksson (1999) and Hansen (2000).

  2. For determinants of successful securitization, see Lynne Doty (1999) and Williams (2003).

  3. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies published a special issue in 2009 entitled ‘Muslims and the State in the Post-9/11 West’ (Vol. 35, No. 3). Contributors to this collection reinforced changing interactions between states in Europe and Muslim minorities and emerging new security concerns after 9/11. See Bleich (2009), Buijs (2009), Bowen (2009) and Mandaville (2009).

  4. For securitization of migration after 11 September attacks and Madrid (11 March 2004) and London (7 July 2005) attacks, see Kaya (2012).

  5. Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Muslim Population (October 2009), pewforum.org/newassets/images/reports/Muslimpopulation/Muslimpopulation.pdf, accessed 14 June 2010.

  6. France ‘to expel radical imams’ (15 July 2005) BBC News. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4688111.stm, accessed 11 June 2010.

  7. The United States threatens mass expulsions (10 June 2003) BBC News. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2974882.stm, accessed 10 June 2010, and Immigrants rush to meet US deadline (10 January 2003) BBC News. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2644951.stm, accessed 10 June 2010.

  8. The US Muslims suffer backlash (19 November 2002) BBC News. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2488829.stm, accessed 10 June 2010.

  9. http://www.frontex.europa.eu/, accessed 17 June 2010.

  10. europa.eu/legislation_summaries/justice_freedom_security/free_movement_of_persons_asylum_immigration/l14511_en.htm, accessed 17 June 2010.

  11. Quotation is from Human Rights Watch Report that refers to El País, 2 May 2004 interview. www.hrw.org/en/reports/2005/01/26/setting-example, accessed 14 June 2010.

  12. France ‘to expel radical imams’ (15 July 2005) BBC News. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4688111.stm, accessed 11 June 2010.

  13. Europe moves against radical imams (6 May 2004) BBC News. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3686617.stm, accessed 11 June 2010.

  14. The US Department of State Religious Freedom Report, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt/; The Times (London), Denmark to Curb Muslim Preachers by Anthony Browne, 19 February 2004; ‘Islam in Denmark’ Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Denmark.

  15. Marine Le Pen in bid to head France’s National Front (13 April 2010) BBC News. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8617647.stm, accessed 11 June 2010 and Profile: Jean-Marie Le Pen (25 April 2007) BBC News. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3658399.stm, accessed 11 June 2010. See also Cesari(2009).

  16. Special Report: Europe’s Far Right. The Guardian, www.guardian.co.uk/gall/0,,711990,00.html, accessed 11 June 2010.

  17. www.hrw.org/en/node/82373/section/5#_ftnref22, accessed 11 June 2010

  18. German state backs headscarf ban (1 April 2004) BBC News. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3591043.stm, accessed 9 June 2010.

  19. European Studies on Religion and State Interaction, State and Church in Germany, January 2008, www.euresisnet.eu/Pages/ReligionAndState/GERMANY.aspx, Germany’s Hijab Ban Discriminatory: HRW, 26 February 2009, DPA, German court Upholds Headscarf Ban, 10 December 2007, www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1235628698092&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout.

  20. Swiss voters back ban on minarets(29 November 2009) BBC News. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8385069.stm, accessed 11 June 2010.

  21. The Minaret Vote, Europe’s Call to Show Bias by Judith Sunderland (2 December 2009) EuropeanVoice, www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/12/02/minaret-vote-europes-call-show-bias, accessed 14 June 2010.

  22. Mosques increasingly not welcome in Europe (17 July 2008) USA Today, www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-07-16-mosques_N.htm, accessed 14 June 2010.

  23. See Shooman and Spielhaus (2010) for a discussion on Muslim enemy within Europe.

  24. Scott (2007) and Bowen (2009) and others argue the French law was targeted against Muslims. Nevertheless, the French decision to apply the restriction to all religions is qualitatively different from applying it to a single religion. Also, as discussed in more detail by Fox (2008), projects such as this one can rarely if ever definitively determine motivations and must limit themselves to actual actions that can be measured.

  25. For a complete discussion and justification for combining multiple categories of religious discrimination weighted equally into a single indicator, see Fox (2008, 2011) and Akbaba and Fox (2011).

  26. The previous version of the RAS-M data set included 24 types of discrimination for 1990–2002 period. The timeframe covered limits its use for examining changes in discrimination after 9/11. Most other codings include significantly less items.

  27. In general, the most specific religious categories available were used as long as each one met the population cutoff. In cases where individual Christian minorities did not meet the population cutoff or more specific information was not available, all Christians, not a member of the majority denomination or a minority denomination that was coded, were coded into an ‘other Christians’ category.

  28. For a detailed listing of the 51 types of religious legislation included in this variable, see the RAS Website at www.religionandstate.org.

  29. Reuters (27 July2007) (via Human Rights without Frontiers Website) Austria’s Haider Says to Ban Mosque Building, www.hrwf.net; BBC Monitoring Europe ‘Austrian People’s Party opposes construction of mosques, immigration’ (9 July 2007).

  30. State Department Report on Religious Freedom, 2008: Malta, www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108459.htm.

  31. The US State Department Report on Human Rights, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78842.htm; The Independent, ‘Switzerland: Europe’s Heart of Darkness?’, (7 September 2007); Human Rights Without Frontiers, ‘Swiss Nationalists Force Referendum on Minaret Ban’, by Elaine Engeler, (8 July 2008), www.hrwf.net.

  32. For a more complete discussion of the causes of religious discrimination, see Fox (2008).

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (Grant 896/00), the Sara and Simha Lainer Chair in Democracy and Civility, and the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this study are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

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  1. Department of Political Studies, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 52900, Israel

    Jonathan Fox

  2. Department of Political Science, Gettysburg College, 300 North Washington Street, Campus Box 406, PA 17325, Gettysburg, USA

    Yasemin Akbaba

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Correspondence to Jonathan Fox.

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Fox, J., Akbaba, Y. Securitization of Islam and religious discrimination: Religious minorities in Western democracies, 1990–2008. Comp Eur Polit 13, 175–197 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2013.8

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