The Political Representation of Muslims in Northern and Western European Countries

Adequate political representation of minorities is vital in representative democracies. This not only ensures that minority interests are included in the policy-making process but it has been shown that underrepresentation can lead to lower political participation by minorities and can be a barrier to integration. Muslims are one of the fastest-growing minority groups in Europe. They constitute approximately 6.81% of the total population which makes Islam the second-largest religion and this is growing rapidly. However, Muslim communities are significantly underrepresented in many (but not all) national parliaments in Europe. This paper aims to explain what factors can influence the number of Muslim MPs that are elected in European national parliaments. It takes advantage of the observed variations in Muslim representation across Europe to address this question. It sets out and tests a number of hypotheses to explain variation in Muslim representation in national parliaments, related to the electoral systems, the seat share of left-wing parties in the national parliaments, and the level of Islamophobia among the public. It uses a quantitative approach to study a key stage that determines the level of Muslim representation which is the election of candidates as representatives for the national parliaments. It uses a quantitative cross-national research design, employing data from a range of European countries. This research will make an important contribution to the literature on Muslim representation in Europe, along with broader literature on minority representation. It will fill a significant gap in the literature by developing the cross-national dataset of Muslim MPs and by testing a range of explanations for variation in Muslim representation. It will allow us to understand why Muslims are often underrepresented in Europe, and what can be done to address this.