Position of the Muslim Communities in Benelux Countries

Abstract

In the context of the geographical spread of Islam, Muslim communities in European countries are often perceived as an achievement of the multiculturalism and tolerance policy. Their appearance in the region is placed exclusively to the last quarter of 20th — beginning of 21st centuries. The article presents an analytic overview of political, socio-economic and cultural events of the mentioned period in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. It allows to make additions to overall assessment of the current political processes and to debate main directions of transformation of the European political and socio-cultural spaces, by example of the Benelux countries.

Keywords

• muslim community
• multiculturalism
• tolerance
• political processes
• socio-cultural space
• terrorism
• netherlands
• belgium
• luxembourg