"I'd say I'm a modern Muslim" : A study of the religiosity of Swedish-born high school students with foreign-born parents

This paper examines how second-generation Muslim immigrants feel that it is to live as a Muslim today in Sweden. The survey is based on six qualitative interviews in which young adults describe how they relate to their religion, religiosity and to their Muslim identity. The result showed that the interviewers felt that Muslims are often generalised as a homogeneous group in the society where their ethnicity, culture and religiosity are often mixedup with other nationalities and cultures. The young adult Muslims believe that they usually end up in a dilemma when discussion about religious affiliation emerges and that they tend to adapt their identity to the environment and to the people they are surrounded by. The study also showed that young adults seemed to consider that the Muslim traditions were more important during the early years of their childhood and that they functioned as a band between them and their parents during their upbringing. Over the years their religiosity seemed to decrease gradually and the young adults think that different factors have had an impact on the change. The interviewers believe that they, together with their parents, have had to adapt Muslim values to the society. They considered that other traditions, in particular Christian traditions, have become more important in their lives