Discrimination against Muslims in Belgium

Abstract

The chapter discusses discrimination against Muslims in Belgium. First it sketches the background of the situation of Muslims in Belgium, including demographics, structure of government, state-religion relations and the status of Islam. This is followed by an analysis of discrimination at the Legislative, Executive and Judicial levels. The latter is subdivided in 5 sections, respectively addressing education, employment, the exercise of religion, state relations with religious communities, and hate crime and hate speech. As an officially recognized religion, Islam enjoys significant benefits, the most notable of which are state subventions and the teaching of Islam in public primary and secondary schools. Yet at the same time, Belgium has extensive restrictions on Muslim religious practice, in particular women’s religious dress, and un-stunned religious slaughter. Finally, there is the fact that Belgium is among the worst performers in Europe when it comes to education and employment of persons with a migration background, the group to which most Muslims in Belgium belong. This is a matter of structural discrimination, in the sense of lack of equal opportunities, that affects Muslims on account of a multiplicity of factors including class, ethnicity and religion.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 13 citations exist upstream.