4. Political opinions and participation among young Muslims in Sweden: a case study

Abstract

In April 2009 Sweden's largest Sunni Muslim youth organisation, Sweden's Young Muslims (SUM), organised their 16th annual youth conference. Based on a survey distributed at the conference, this chapter aims to document and analyse political opinion and political participation among young organised Muslims in Sweden and relate the respondents' answers to the political left and right scale. For this purpose – well aware of competing and alternative definitions – we do not apply an external definition of ‘young’ or ‘Muslim’, but rather assume that those attending a conference for young Muslims see themselves as fitting the bill. Before we go into the specific survey we would like to offer some more general comments on the composition of Sweden's Muslim population. Like most countries in Europe, the Swedish population has been altered because of international migration (workforce migration, family reunification migration and asylum seekers) and more generally by globalisation processes. Compared to the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Sweden is today a multicultural and multi-religious society and the Swedish constitution and the state places great stress on freedom of religion and pluralism. For example, when writing this chapter (autumn 2012) the Swedish state supports six Muslim umbrella organisations with economic subsidies, and religious groups are often seen as important interlocutors for the state. However, this recognition does not clash with the fact that the state of Sweden aims at neutrality when it comes to religious affairs.