Is the clash of cultures on the Old Continent inevitable?
The sources of Muslim immigration to Europe are partly economic and partly a product of lack of freedom.
One can identify three major waves of immigration, different in origin, different in goals. The fi rst came in the 40’s from India and Pakistan to Great Britain. Somewhat later Muslims from North Africa arrived in France, which had been their colonial rulers. The last was in the 60’s, it came from Turkey and settled in Germany. These people came because they were invited – there was a need in Germany to make up for a lack of native German industrial workers. These three European countries show that there is not a Muslim grouping that represents this community in its entirety, but different nationalities, different languages and different denominations. In order to improve opportunities and limit the challenges, one has to look to the past. Since the Islamic revolution in Iran of 1979, and the rise of political Islam in its aftermath, the world began to sense that this would be the coming confl ict between the Middle East and the rest of the free world. Only few, however, were able to foresee on which continent this would have the most significant impact: Europe.
Great differences
For whatever reasons people from Middle East and with a Muslim background came to Europe – political, economic – all eventually came to stay. The most educated and secular group are the Iranians, while the Turkish and Arab communities are often associated with traditional and conservative values that even extend to radicalism. Though traditionalism is not per se something backward, it is not open towards inspiration and infl uence through modernity and is incompatible with our democratic foundations.
Today, decades after the rise of political Islam, this faith has to decide – will it be the end of the political dimension of the Islamic religion? Many of the current historic upheavals in the Middle East already point in this direction. It might still take a long time and there will certainly be setbacks, but it is evident that what started with Iran’s Freedom Movement and continued with the Arab Spring is the beginning of democracy in those societies.
What does this mean for Islam in Europe? Is something like European Islam possible? A European Islam that would positively infl uence movements and changes in the Middle Eastern countries? While future developments and directions, though not entirely predictable, are already evolving, one fact is definitely present now: a European Islam does not exist and is to some extent even misleading.
There is much happening between Europe and the Middle East – in the political arena and on a personal level between Muslim communities in Europe and their original homelands. But in Europe and the Middle East, there are great differences. In Europe Muslims enjoy freedom of expression and speech, experience entirely different educational systems, the separation of state and religion and many other facets, such as gender equality, that represent our fundamental democratic tenets. In the Middle East the Muslim community is confronted almost daily with severe limitations – the majority of religious states deny their citizens civil rights.
For many decades, Muslims in the Middle East were not able to express their thoughts on reform and change in their own religion in open debate, but only underground. Decades of radical Islam propagated by radical leaderships have led to secular, modern and peacefully oriented younger generations whose faces, voices and courage shaped the Arab Spring and Iran’s protest beginning in 2009.
In Europe decades after Muslims have integrated into free and democratic societies, more radical views among the Muslim community are visible than ever before. What went wrong? Why haven’t freedom and democracy enlightened European Muslims much more than is now visible?
The answer has to do with a lack of identity. Young Muslim generations in Europe have grown up without valuing the gift of two cultures, two languages and a multi-religious surrounding. Encapsulation, lack of adjustment and education and yes, intolerance and racism in the mainstream societies are reasons that a clash of cultures is developing here, while the Middle East is moving slowly but steadily towards secularism. As the Muslim community is a minority in Europe, one is tempted to compare it with the Jewish community here, but that again would be misleading.
The need for enlightenment
Although a minority, European Jews have always contributed to the highest level in countries where they settled. They embraced liberal democracy in all its facets and were themselves very liberal in their orientation. The persecution Jews in Europe experienced has a uniqueness that forbids comparing the intolerance Muslims in Europe experience with anti-Semitism.
Muslims themselves have an anti-Semitic problem – hatred towards Jews and the state of Israel is strong, growing and disconcerting. Until the young Muslim generation in Europe has found its identity, until it comprehends what democracy and separation between religion and state mean, and until our mainstream societies have found a way to realize that acceptance and criticism towards defi cits in integration aren’t mutually exclusive – until then Islam and European democracies will be in conflict. What is needed is an Islamic Enlightenment. A movement that is beginning to emerge in the Middle East; one should hope that it will come to Europe.