Religious Governance and Integration Policies in Germany and the Netherlands: The Impact on the Self-Portrayal and Strategies of Muslim Organizations

This article focuses on the question of how national integration policies and regimes of religious governance in Germany and the Netherlands shape political opportunity structures for organized Muslim migrants. The impact of these opportunity structures is analyzed by looking at the self-portrayal of (primarily Turkish) Muslim organizations in the two countries and the strategies they apply. It is shown that Muslim organizations in the Netherlands present themselves as cultural organizations while their German counterparts present themselves as religious organizations. The study suggests that these different strategies can be explained with different national political approaches to govern ethnic and religious diversity.