Authors

Discussion

This paper focuses on the adaptation strategies of the Muslim population of Europe which has immigrated from post-Soviet countries and, in particular, from the Northern Caucasus in Russia (Chechnya, Dagestan, Northern Ossetia, etc.). Many of these Muslims has been immigrating in Europe during the last 30 years for different reasons: the civil war in Chechnya, restrictions of religious freedom in Russia, violence against the LGBT-people. European countries host many post-Soviet Muslims as political refugees. The paper presents a collective project which focuses on the cases of France, Belgium and Switzerland and aims to analyse how this Muslims adapt their religious practices and the way of life to the European environment in the framework alternative to the secularisation theory (Gauthier 2020).  

What are the strategies of adaptation for these Muslims in the European context where they face “liberal” and “republican” approaches to secularism (Gauthier 2017) instead of Soviet/post-Soviet style of religious managing? My hypothesis is that these Muslims transform their national identity into the religious using local and international Muslim networks. This augmented Muslim identity will form their main resource for their adaptation to the foreign environment. If empirical data confirm this hypothesis, it will mean that these Muslims prefer to proceed through the global Muslim market networks rather than their national or ethnical re