Trust and Mistrust among European Muslims

This article addresses the current crisis of trust among Muslims in Europe, with a particular focus on the situation in the Netherlands. Trust is generally understood as a firm belief that a desired circumstance, the control of which is beyond one’s own power, will occur, or that actors will behave according to our expectations. It can be seen as having roughly three dimensions: the relation between individual actors and private organisations or state institutions; particular forms of intimacy, reliability, local-level relations and community building; and various settings and contexts of knowledge transfer and legitimisation. In all three, social interaction is an essential constituent element. I argue that, although the first dimension is most visible and compelling, in order to understand the current crisis of trust among Muslims, we should consider all three dimensions as interrelated and constituting one area of concern.