Values constitute an essential metric for evaluating the importance of things, actions, and behaviors in human lives. Each culture has its own perception of ethics, and contradictions may result in violent escalations. The modern world bear witness to such outbursts on a religious basis. Rapidly growing Islam makes many Europeans anxious about its influence. The Muslim population in Europe is likely to continue increasing in the future, which propels researchers to explore Muslim and native European values.
Values is a broad term, which has a unique meaning to every group. For the purpose of the study, it was essential to choose the explanation, which would apply to drastically different religions. Czymara and Eisentraut (2020) use Schwartz’s definition of values as “desirable transsituational goals, varying in importance, that serve as guiding principles in the life of a person or other social entity” (p. 2). In essence, notwithstanding the current circumstance, every individual follows a set of principles, which comprise their values.
Anytime diverse group identities interact, a conflict of values emerges. Czymara & Eisentraut (2020) provide a critical evaluation of the demographic situation in Europe. The immigrant exodus from the Middle East combined with the natural high Muslim population growth rate have substantially amplified the presence of representatives of this religion in Europe. The researchers state that disagreements in moral viewpoints lead to aggression and hate crimes, thus justifying the need for ascertaining the compatibility of different identities.
The aim of the study is to compare Muslim values to those of non-Muslim groups by studying the moral considerations of 50 000 respondents. The geography of the research includes Belgium, France, Germany, and Sweden. All of these countries have accumulated significant experience of integrating immigrants. Non-Muslim identities are represented by Christian natives and Europeans with atheistic worldviews. Ultimately, the goal is to establish the influence of differences in religiosity and economic conditions on differences in moral values.
The major findings of the research underscored two primary correlations. The more people are religious, the more they are likely to share conservative views and conformity. The second tendency is that Muslim hedonistic values are more in line with atheists than Christians. A peculiar observation was made concerning the relationship between socio-economic status and security. The better the conditions were where respondents lived, the more secure they felt regardless of the religiosity.
The implications of the study relate to finding the optimal balance of religious groups living together for peaceful coexistence. Firstly, the discovery that Muslims and Christians have similar attitudes to conformity implies the possibility of non-hostile interaction between more conservative members. Secondly, the similarity between hedonistic Muslims and non-religious people suggests that it is better to allocate these two groups together. Overall, the higher the socio-economic status is, the easier the communication between the groups will be, while poor conditions precipitate hostility.
Based on the results of the study, the researchers have produced several recommendations to governments of countries with high religious diversity. Czymara & Eisentraut (2020) argue that “integration politics should encourage minorities to invest more into the social and cultural capital, ultimately leading values of immigrants to a converge to those of natives” (p. 12). Another recommendation is to use Sweden as an example of a policy, “granting immigrants an easy access to equal rights” (p. 12). The researchers observe a far lesser gap in social values between religious groups in Sweden than in other countries.
The authors acknowledge the limitation of their study, which is the sample size. Some of the targeted countries do not have a sufficient number of Muslims to make adequate conclusions. For instance, Sweden has only 2.29 percent, while Belgium has 4.97 percent. It is a small quantity in comparison to France and Germany, where conflicts are much more evident. Although by no means do they devaluate the findings of the study, the limitations showcase the demand for larger sample sizes.
Reference
Czymara, C. S., & Eisentraut, M. (2020). A Threat to the occident. Comparing human values of Muslim immigrants, Christian, and non-religious natives in Western Europe.Frontiers in Sociology. 5(538926).