The Non-Impact of Religious Practices on the Process of Inclusion and Participation of Belgian Muslims

Abstract The various terrorist attacks carried out by the Islamic State in Europe have raised new questions about the compatibility of Islam and European “values”. Most of the studies are qualitative and have several limitations, especially regarding their ability to generalize their findings. In this paper, we show that each individual religious practice is largely followed. Second and third generations Muslims are in fact no less religious than their parents and grand-parents. But we also shed light on an ongoing process of individualizing faith and religious references and, most importantly, on the non-impact of religious practices on the integration process of the Belgo-Moroccan and Belgo-Turkish groups within Belgian society. In practical terms, this means that religious practices have no influence on socioeconomic indicators, political participation, and identity issues, and finally, the feeling of discrimination. In order to explain these different results, we assess here the progressive secularization of Belgian Muslim identities.