23 and/or gender and why? In this dissertation, I studied in-group voting by citizens of France, Germany and the Netherlands with a first- or second generation migration background in Turkey (all countries), North-Africa/Morocco (France, the Netherlands), Sub-Saharan Africa (France), the Former Soviet Union (Germany), Surinam (the Netherlands) as well as those without a migration background, and/or those who self-identify as Muslim, Christian or non-religious. I emphasize voting for individual politicians with a secondary focus on voting for political parties. When taking political parties out of the equation, the existing literature reveals a consensus that minority voting citizens tend to prefer voting for candidates from their own racial or ethnic background and gender (Carlson, 2015; Dolan, 2008; Kao and Benstead, 2021; Kaslovsky et al., 2021; Lemi and Brown, 2019; Sanbonmatsu, 2002). This field, however, lacks research on Muslims in Europe, where debates on minority politics center on Muslim politicians and Islam (Vermeulen, 2018). My incorporation of Muslim politicians and examination of religious self-identification within the study of in-group voting stands out as a distinctive approach in the field. The influence and significance of Muslim voters and politicians emerged as pivotal factors shaping the dynamics of in-group voting for minority and majority groups. Amid the broader exploration of minority in-group voting, this dissertation centers on analyzing the in-group voting behavior specifically of self-identifying European Muslims. While Muslim European citizens face underrepresentation in European national parliaments (Aktürk and Katliarou, 2021), their societal position continues to be a contentious topic in political discourse (Vermeulen, 2018) and they experience distinct anti-Muslim racism in broader society (Fernández-Reino et al., 2023). Meanwhile, Muslims express low feelings of representation, political trust and satisfaction with democracy (Grewal and Hamid, 2022; Maxwell, 2010) and boosting the presence of Muslims in politics increases trust in the democratic process, encourages active participation (Spierings and Vermeulen, 2023), increases voter turnout among minority groups (Poertner, 2022) and ultimately contributes to a more robust and better functioning democracy (Mishler and Rose, 2001; Akachar et al., 2017). Understanding when and why in-group voting can contribute to the political inclusion of Muslims is vital for comprehending the democratic process in our increasingly diverse societies. While existing European research indicates that Muslims often vote for Muslim politicians (Azabar et al., 2020), distinguishing whether this is driven by shared religious identity or aligned policy positions presents a challenge. In some contexts, sharing the same religion and sharing the same policy preference is likely to align. In other contexts, this is not the case at all. Muslim politicians can be incentivized to distance themselves from prevailing stereotypes about Muslims, possibly impeding in-group voting amongst Muslims (Dancygier, 2017; StephensDougan, 2020). An exploration of in-group voting needs to disentangle shared identity and shared policy in order to understand which factor is driving voting amongst
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