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Scientists on why the integration of Muslims fails – and how it threatens democracy
Published 2025-10-25

The Dutch sociologist Ruud Koopmans is current in Swedish with the fall of the crescent, a book that summarizes three decades of research on Islam, migration and integration. According to Koopmans, the explanation for Europe’s integration failures lies primarily in culture and religion – not in economics – and the consequences risk undermining democratic norms. At the same time, he outlines concrete measures that he believes can reverse the trend.

Kopmans, professor of sociology at Humboldt University in Berlin and advisor to the German migration authority BAMF, describes in his new book “The Fall of the Half Moon” how the integration gaps among immigrant Muslims in the West persist over generations. According to him, comparative studies speak a clear language: Muslims in Europe have a harder time establishing themselves in the labour market, are under-represented in higher education and have poorer school outcomes than other immigrant groups.

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This cannot be explained only by socioeconomics, says Koopmans in an interview with the magazine Fokus. “I realized that it was not social and economic factors that made it difficult for Muslims to integrate,” he says, pointing to differences in values between Northern Europe and many countries of origin in the Middle East and North Africa. In countries where family, gender roles and religion govern social life create patterns that make mixed marriages, neighbourhoods and everyday contact difficult – keys for integration.
Colonial trauma and the emergence of fundamentalism

Koopmans rejects interpretations that make “Islam itself” the entire explanation and point out that a historical trauma – the loss of political and religious supremacy after the fall of the Ottoman Empire – contributed to a modern fundamentalism that grew in strength after 1979. In the field of tension between forced secularization (à la Atatürk) and religious retreat, many communities pulled the latter. The result, Koopmans argues, is visible in today's democratic decline in previous exceptions such as Tunisia and Senegal.

The issue of threats to European democracies recurs through the book. “Muslims are already threatening Swedish democracy,” Koopmans states, referring not primarily to the number of casualties, which in itself are many, but on the inhibiting effect of terror on freedom of expression: the murder of Theo van Gogh and the attack on Charlie Hebdo are mentioned as an example that frightened critics into silence. At the same time, Koopmans points out that the deadly violence mainly affects Muslims – hundreds of thousands of victims in conflicts where jihadist terror is used against their own populations.
The welfare state, multiculturalism and politics

Koopman's research points out that strong welfare states have a harder time integrating groups with large valuation distances. When grant schemes enable life outside the language of the majority society and standards, adaptation is slowed down. “Multiculturalism is not compatible with a strong welfare state,” he concludes, arguing that Denmark – and late on sider now also Sweden – has drawn that conclusion in its policy.
At the same time, he stresses that democratic outlets for immigration criticism reduce the risk of political violence. When opinion is channeled through parties rather than underground environments, the level of extreme right violence drops, in the same way that the far left was de-radicalized when it became parliamentaryly represented.
Must be clear rules of the game

Koopmans believes that successful integration begins with clear rules of the game: gender equality culture, equality before the law, full freedom of speech even when religious feelings are hurt. He also advocates state-affiliated, linguistically and quarry-based imam education to reduce dependence on foreign funding and theological imports.
Picture: Faksimil Youtube.

“It would also be good to ban the burqa and the niqab and demand that everyone show their face in public.” The measures may be perceived as controversial, Koopmans admits, but is, according to him, necessary to defend open societies.
Asylum migration from national burden to European order

In the new book, Koopmans argues for a common EU system that controls both inflow and benefits responsibility fairly between Member States. Strict security clearances are to protect recipient countries from infiltration of fundamentalism and organised crime. At the same time, politics – in his interpretation – needs to re