Mobilising mosques? The role of service attendance for political participation of Turkish and Moroccan minorities in the Netherlands

Abstract

Religious service attendance has been identified as an important source of political participation among Christians and Muslims in the USA. In Europe, where religion is seen as a barrier rather than a bridge to Muslims' integration, the role of mosque attendance for the political participation of Muslims remains understudied. This study asks whether the politically mobilizing role of service attendance extends to Muslim minorities in Europe. We examine direct and indirect effects of the frequency of religious service attendance on organizational participation, political trust and voting intentions among large nationwide samples of Turkish and Moroccan minorities in the Netherlands using multi-group structural equation modelling. Our results show that service attendance relates positively to engagement in both co-ethnic and mainstream organizations. These two forms of civic engagement translate into a greater intention to vote among Turks, but not Moroccans.

On the (In)compatibility of Islamic Religiosity and Citizenship in Western Democracies: The Role of Religion for Muslims’ Civic and Political Engagement

“…These civically mobilizing effects of mosques have also been confirmed by Fleischmann, Martinovic, and Böhm. (2016), who examined the effects of religious service attendance among Muslims of Moroccan and Turkish origin in the Netherlands.…”

Muslim community organizations – sites of active citizenship or self-segregation?

“…Thus, there is no reason to assume that the widely accepted tenet that citizens' involvement in non-political institutions and organizations can enhance political participation (Verba, Schlozman, and Brady 1995, 369) would not also apply to Muslim community organizations. This resonates with a number of studies that have found evidence for direct or indirect effects of Muslim community activism on political participation (Jamal 2005;McAndrew and Sobolewska 2015;Read 2015;Fleischmann, Martinovic, and Böhm 2016).…”

“…McAndrew and Voas (2014) found that British Muslims with higher levels of subjective religiosity and communal religious practice were more likely to participate in a (mainstream) civil society organization and to become involved in politics or community affairs. In the Netherlands, Fleischmann, Martinovic, and Böhm (2016) demonstrate in their empirical study among Turkish and Moroccan Muslims that their participation in ethnic or ethno-religious community organizations correlates positively and significantly with their political trust, which, in turn, has significantly positive effects on political participation.…”

Religion and integration: does immigrant generation matter? The case of Moroccan and Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands

“…Yet, research on second-generation Muslim immigrants finds fewer negative and sometimes even positive associations between religiosity and integration outcomes such as education, employment, interethnic marriage, civic engagement, and gender egalitarianism (Carol and Schulz 2018;Fleischmann and Phalet 2012;Fleischmann, Martinovic and Böhm 2016;Maliepaard, Lubbers, and Gijsberts 2010;Maliepaard, Gijsberts, and Lubbers 2012;Ohlendorf, Koenig and Diehl 2017;Scheible and Fleischmann 2013). For example, Fleischmann and Phalet (2012) investigated second-generation Turkish immigrants in four European cities and found neither educational attainment, employment status nor interethnic marriage to be associated with immigrants' religiosity in Amsterdam, Brussels and Stockholm.…”

“…Previous studies typically focused on a single or few selected integration outcomes, for instance egalitarian gender ideology (e.g. Scheible and Fleischmann 2013), educational attainment and employment status , political participation (Fleischmann, Martinovic, and Böhm 2016) or social integration (Maliepaard and Phalet 2012). The current study offers a more comprehensive test of the role of immigrant generation in the association between religiosity and the integration of Moroccan and Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands by including eight different indicators of immigrant integration, covering its structural, social, cultural, and psychological dimensions.…”