Based on his 20-year-long studies on integration and assimilation, Dutch professor of sociology Ruud Koopmans has come to the conclusion that Muslims are more difficult to integrate than other migrant groups.
Ruud Koopmans claims than no Western country has managed to successfully integrate Muslims.
“Muslims are much worse at integration than other groups of migrants, and there is no doubt that in most other groups of migrants, we see great progress from one generation to the next. Although it’s not completely absent in Muslims, the change is much slower,” he told Danish newspaper Berlingskerecently.
Around 65 percent of the Turkish and Moroccan Muslims in six European countries consider religious rules to be more important than the secular law of the country in which they live.
Muslims consider themselves separate from other non-Muslim groups, and refrain from broader interaction with those outside their religion.
The fundamentalist interpretation of the Quran, which is prevalent among Muslims, prevents them from being integrated into Western countries.
And up to 50 percent of Muslims in Europe hold fundamentalist beliefs. By contrast, the proportion of fundamentalists among Christians is much lower, at less than 4 percent, according to Koopmans’ data
“I conclude that the Islamic world is lagging behind rest of the world when it comes to democracy, human rights, and political and economic development,” Koopmans told Berlingske, attributing this to conservative views on the role of women, low investment into children’s education and fundamentalist propaganda.
“The main problem is how many Muslims and, globally, many Muslim countries interpret Islam. Namely, in a way that basically claims that the Quran and the Sunna must be taken literally, and that the way the Prophet lived in the 7th century must be the yardstick for how Muslims should live in the 21st century.”
“Such a brand of Islam is, firstly, a threat to world peace. Secondly, it prevents integration,” Koopmans concluded.