Integrating Ireland's Muslims: Attitudes of Muslim and Irish Elites towards Value Compatibility and the Mainstreaming of Islam

Abstract

This article examines the views of Irish and Irish-Muslim elites about the compatibility of Islamic and Western values and how these elites feel Islam should (or should not) be integrated into the existing church–state systems. Ireland is a theoretically revealing case to examine because Ireland lacks an officially endowed religion, and yet the Catholic Church remains a dominant force in Irish society. The results of 16 interviews with Irish and Muslim elites demonstrate that both sets of elites have significant support for the perspective that Islamic and Western values are compatible, even while among the Muslim community there is strong support for the opinion that compatibility of values is dependent on the situation and among the Irish elite there is a small, but nonetheless important, presence of support for the belief that Islamic and Western values are incompatible and that Islam should not be mainstreamed. The findings also show that Ireland lacks a clear integration strategy but there exists a desire to protect the rights of individuals to practice their own faith.