Religion som orsak till eller lösning på sociala problem. : – En argumentationsanalys av motioner om religiösa friskolor från Socialdemokraterna, Liberalerna och Sverigedemokraterna.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the argumentation used by the Liberals (Liberalerna), Social democrats (Socialdemokraterna) and Sweden democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) in motions regarding religious independent schools in or- der to explore whether they view religion as a cause or as a solution to social problems. The essay focuses on the parliamentary sessions of 2016/17 and 2017/18. Three questions were used to guide the study: 1. How do the Liberals, Social democrats and Sweden democrats view religious independent schools - as a solu- tion to, or a cause of social problems? 2. How can we by using Hjelm, El- Menouar and Becker’s development of the theory of religion and social problems understand the political parties descriptions and arguments regarding religious independent schools? 3. What relevance does the results of the study have for the school subject religious education? The essay utilizes James A. Beckford’s theory about religion and social prob- lems along with Titus Hjelm, Yasmin El-Menouar and Melanie Becker’s applica- tion of the theory. An argumentative analysis and an abductive approach has been used in this study, which resulted in the finding of six categories of social prob- lems that religious independent schools was deemed to be the cause of: non- democratic values, non-compliance with regulatory documents, integration and parallel societies, unspecified problems, funding, and honor related violence and oppression. After analyzing the material, the conclusion was that all of the political parties viewed profiled religion and religious independent schools as a problem. In line with the findings of El-Menouar and Becker the parties expressed a fear for the development of parallel societies, misogyny and honor related violence as well as forcing the pupils to practice a certain religion or be used as a platform for re- cruitment to terror organizations. The results of the study show how religion, mostly Islam, is discussed by three political parties and therefore the results can be used in religious education. Keywords: (Independent religious schools, political parties, politics, religion in schools, religion