Europeans pay little heed to the requirements of religious observance. In that sense, they deserve to be characterised as ‘post-Christian’. Yet, the integration of Islam and Muslims has proven surprisingly difficult for a public that claims to care little about faith. Governments and courts have only recently begun to puzzle out the meaning of state neutrality in newly multi-religious societies while faced with assertive political voices reiterating the importance of Christianity to the European identity.

Many subjects of European states – residents and citizens – no longer adhere to the official state Churches. Muslims comprise between 2 and 8 per cent, about fifteen million people, of the populations of the dozen west European countries with significant immigrant-origin minorities. Scientologists, Hassidim, Mormons, Catholics hewing to the Latin mass, Hindus, and many other groups, new and old, immigrant-origin or old European, are a growing presence. The European Evangelical Alliance, a lobbying organisation for the Evangelical churches in Brussels, claims fifteen million members. Born-again Christians adhere to the same Bible as Europe's Christians but the American-style Evangelical churches share with Muslims the status of outsider and the lack of official recognition. Their demands for accommodation strain the institutional habits of states sanctioned by Europe's national confessions, Protestant or Roman Catholic. Some European cities now face the prospect of becoming minority Christian and the need to adjust public calendars, municipal and social services, and consultation practices to reflect this fact. Change is invariably accompanied by squawking from the losers.