Since the start of the new millennium, claims for religious accommodation of Muslim minorities have been the object of considerable attention in European (and Quebecois) media and political debates. In the academic literature, this perceived increase of claims for accommodation has mainly been attributed to political factors, as well international and national ones. Firstly, the 9/11 attacks and the anti-Muslim climate afterwards are said to have lead to a radicalization of Muslims, and this due to a ‘reactive identity formation’ (Nagra, 2011; Portes and Rumbaut, 2006). Secondly, Muslim minorities have increasingly accessed formal citizenship in European countries. These increased citizenship acquisitions are said to have favoured the demands for recognition of formally equal citizens who feel treated as second-class citizens (Nakano Glenn, 2002). While we accept that these explanations do yield valuable insights, we argue in this paper that it is important to also consider the economic context of post-fordism (Boltanksi et Chiapello, 1999) to enhance our understanding of the perceived ‘crises’ of religious accommodation. Our claims for taking into account this understudied variable will be empirically illustrated with the justifications put forward by human resource managers when dealing with claims for religious accommodation in the Belgian workplace.
