An obvious part of Sweden : A study in how young peopleconnected to Sveriges Unga Muslimer handle their Muslimidentity in Swedish society

This essay examines how young Muslims, with connection to the coalition Sveriges Unga Muslimer, handle their Muslim identity. The essay examines strategies the young Muslims use in the meeting with the Swedish society and how they construct a functioning and secure identity. Six Muslim youths, who were members of two local associations connected to SUM, were interviewed. The results of this essay showed that democratic rights and liberties, a Muslim community and a self-constructed identity, freed from the stereotype media picture, are important in the development of a functioning and secure Swedish Muslim identity. The young Muslims in the study did not handle their identity in a conservative way, by way of isolation. Neither did they use a secular strategy, where they completely adapt to Swedish society. Instead these young Muslims have succeeded in finding a path between isolation and assimilation, a path where they consider themselves faithful to Islam and at the same time interact in a functioning way with their Swedish surroundings and actively participate in the society as self-assured Swedish citizens. Thus the young Muslims used a third type of strategy in their meeting with a western society. They also seemed to have constructed a sort of new European interpretation of Islam, a so-called euro-Islam.