THE MUSLIM DIASPORA IN CONTEMPORARY NORWAY: HISTORY, CHALLENGES AND DANGERS

Abstract

The article examines the problem of increasing influence of Muslim migrants in the Kingdom of Norway. Particular attention is paid to the issue of social policy of the country in relation to Muslims, as well as the issue of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism, which pose a threat to the national security of the country. Anti-Muslim views began to develop very strongly in Norwegian society after 2010, and especially after the migration crisis in the European Union in 2015–2016. Part of the population of Norway believes that there is a slow takeover of their country by Muslim migrants, who are gradually and systematically building a parallel society. Various statistical studies conducted in Norway over the past few years show the increasing dynamics of the development of Islamophobia among the indigenous population of Norway. Muslim migrants began to arrive in the country during the economic growth in the sixties as workers. In the second half of the seventies, some workers from Muslim countries such as Pakistan, Turkey and Morocco began to move their families and received citizenship. Later, during the conflicts in the Middle East, Africa and the former Yugoslav republics, war refugees began to move to Norway. The country attracted them with its high standard of living and developed social system. Gradually, a problem with their integration arose. Today, many migrants have a poor knowledge of Norwegian and do not have a higher education, which most often becomes the reason for the inability to find a job with good pay. They are forced to live in poor areas and engage in small-scale entrepreneurship. Also, young Muslims cannot integrate and experience a sense of renunciation, which is used by various Islamic extremist organizations such as the Islamic State, pushing them to commit terrorist attacks in Norwegian cities. At the same time, a feeling of hatred and Islamophobia is growing in Norwegian society, which is expressed in open discrimination on religious, cultural, linguistic and ethnic grounds, and also contributes to the increase in the influence of right-wing Norwegian political parties that build their strategy on populist slogans.