ABSTRACT
Being Muslim is a source of stigma for the second generation on both sides of the Atlantic, yet to emphasize only this similarity is misleading. Muslim immigrants and their second generation children have become a greater source of contention and conflict, and Islam has become a more central divide between immigrants and the native majority population, in Western European societies than in the United States. The chapter discusses four main reasons. For one thing, demographic characteristics of the U.S. and European Muslim populations, including their relative sizes, are crucial. Also, Western European native majorities have more trouble recognizing claims based on religion because they are, overall, more secular than religiously oriented Americans. Further, historically based relations and institutional arrangements between the state and religious groups have made it more difficult to incorporate new religions in Europe. A final element has to do with identities: the position of the United States as a classic settler society, as well as the mid-twentieth century development of more expansive conceptions of American national identity, have led to a greater acceptance of religious and ethnic identities among the children of Muslim immigrants in the United States than is the case in Western Europe
