Are Birds of a Feather Praying Together? Assessing Friends’ Influence on Muslim Youths’ Religiosity in Germany

Lars Leszczensky,Sebastian Pink

doi:10.1177/0190272520936633

Abstract

Muslim religiosity is often portrayed as a barrier to integration into secular societies, especially in Europe. Scholars suggest that religiously segregated networks reinforce Muslims’ religiosity and religious identification, but solid evidence is scarce. Based on longitudinal German data, we examined whether friendship networks influence Muslim youths’ religiosity. Using stochastic actor-oriented models, we also assessed whether religiosity in turn relates to friendship choices. We found that higher shares of Muslim friends neither increase Muslim youths’ religious identification nor their frequency of prayer, but they are associated with more frequent mosque attendance. Furthermore, Muslim youths assimilated their Muslim friends’ mosque attendance and frequency of prayer. Friends’ actual religious practices, rather than shared group membership, thus seems to shape individual religiosity. Finally, religiosity does not hamper interreligious friendships; it was unrelated to friendship choices. Results are similar for Christian youths, suggesting that these patterns are not unique to Muslims.

Highlights

Religious Identification and Religious Practice of European MuslimsA key distinction can be made between the strength of religious identification and following religious practices, such as praying or attending religious services (Maliepaard and Phalet 2012)
We provide longitudinal evidence for how friends influence the religiosity of young
We found only for mosque attendance but not for frequency of prayer and religious identification that having more friends that are Muslim was associated with higher individual religiosity

Summary

Introduction

Religious Identification and Religious Practice of European MuslimsA key distinction can be made between the strength of religious identification and following religious practices, such as praying or attending religious services (Maliepaard and Phalet 2012). Unlike for Christians, who still are the dominant religious group in most European countries, this poses a challenge to European Muslims, whose religious identification is devalued both by negative portrayals of Muslims in public discourse and by anti-Muslim sentiments of non-Muslim Europeans (Foner and Alba 2008; Voas and Fleischmann 2012). Considering such an unsatisfactory social identity, social identity theory suggests that individuals will strive either to leave their existing group or to make it more positively distinct. European Muslims’ pronounced religious identification can be understood as a coping strategy against discrimination (Foner and Alba 2008; Voas and Fleischmann 2012)

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Discussion

Conclusion