This study concerns factors which might lead young Muslims in minority communities in Sweden towards a Salafist understanding of the Islamic message. Previous research, particularly in psychology and psychiatry, highlights adolescent-specific factors such as psychological vulnerability with possible depression, including death wishes, as well as social factors such as family dysfunction and discrimination, as being crucial. The aim of this study is to take a minority perspective in discussing possible reasons for, and consequences of, young members of minorities’ self-distancing from the majority society. The theoretical framework employed is identity formation. The study relies on participation in Muslim communities, interviews with Muslims conducted in the south of Sweden from the late 1980 onwards, and literature and newspaper articles written by or about youths with immigrant backgrounds.

The results of the study indicate that the non-extremist Muslim parent generation’s relationship with the majority society during their children’s formative years might influence these children’s attitudes towards the majority society as they grow older. Muslim immigrants’ insecurity in the new society is conveyed to and transformed by the next generation, and may play an unintentional role in young Muslims turning to Salafist understandings of the Islamic message.

Furthermore, the Swedish policy of ‘diversity’ (‘Mångfald’) tends to create fertile ground for this understanding, as it creates majority acceptance of the Muslim parent generation staying apart from the majority society and raising the next generation with little or no loyalty to the majority society.