Muslims in Europe A Shared Citizenship Transcending the Imposition of Cultural Homogeneity
The Reemergence of Islam
Apart from this historical narrative, contemporary politics, global events and the changing socio-cultural dynamics within Europe provide a framework and context for this seemingly increasing polarization and sense of fear and mistrust. This has resulted in the perception of an emerging triangle of Western Muslims, political and radical Islam, and terrorism. The afore mentioned issues such as the veil ban are the manifestations or symptoms, a kind of defense mechanism against the increasing visibility and thus perceived threat of Islam in “fortress Europe”.
The Muslim presence in Europe is a consequence of the immigration flows of the 1960s, specifically of residents of former European colonies in Asia and North Africa. So though Europe has been aware of this Muslim presence and its political and cultural implications for their societies for years now, what has been more discerning is its increasing assertiveness in affirming its identity and rights. In this respect any social phenomena cannot be examined in isolation but rather within a certain context and the interplay of different factors. Thus Muslims in Europe have been impacted by political Islamic ideologies and movements in the Muslim world, notions of a pan-Islamic identity, political strife, and of course Western foreign policies vis-à-vis the Muslim world.
In this regard as some observe, with the rise of Islamic regimes in the Middle East and North Africa following the Iranian Revolution of 1979 European countries became uneasily aware that many of their ethnic-minority workers and their dependents were also Muslim. The Afghan jihad against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan further changed the discourse from race and ethnicity to religion and Islam. Following from this, with the fall of Communism a perception generated was that the red communist threat had been replaced by a green Muslim threat. As Elizabeth Poole states, political Islam emerging out of different experiences of colonialism and oppression has allowed the West to construct Islam as the new enemy (a global force representing an ideological and physical/security threat to Western interests) based on a historically polarized relationship, with the media being as it is an instrument of public ideology, reproducing and sustaining this narrative.
Within the European context specifically, the Salman Rushdie affair (1988-89) can be said to have raised the questions that have become the defining issues of today, such as Islam’s relationship to the West, the meaning of multiculturalism, and the limits of tolerance in a liberal society. It was said to have divided “Muslims from Westerners along the fault line of culture.” Kenan Malik states that it transformed the relationship between Islam and the West; from then on Islam was a domestic issue for the residents of Europe. Also as Jocelyne Caesari observes after the Rushdie affair, integration came to be understood as a two-way process which would necessarily transform the majority population as well.
The 1990’s witnessed the collapse of the ideological divide between the United States and the Soviet Union, between democracy and totalitarianism, capitalism and communism. Alongside this, two strikingly contrasting narratives and images from the nineties giving Islam center stage in Europe were the Bosnian war ( 1992-1995) and the Taliban phenomenon/ regime (1996-2001), the latter ingraining no doubt in the western psyche the image of the invisible burqa clad Afghan/Muslim woman. With the dawn of the 21st century the events of 9/11 set the stage for the mutual distrust and divide between the West and the Muslim world. To contend matters the ensuing Global War on Terror, especially the London and Madrid bombings fed the stereotype of Muslims being violent, extremist, intolerant, irrational, and the non-Western “other,” increasing anti-Muslim feeling across Europe. The murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh an outspoken critic of Islam in 2004 again brought the issue of Islamic extremism to the forefront of European political debate.
As some point out, the awareness of the widespread presence of Muslims and the assertiveness and adherence to Islamic values of many of them have caused many Europeans to feel culturally threatened, and behave like an insecure minority. Furthermore the ability today of European Muslims to internationalize their causes, pressure European governments by ‘plugging into the Ummah’ and actually cause political and economic damage as reflected in the Danish cartoons is not only seen as adding to their strength and self-assertion but also to increasing animosity in host societies and intensifying fear of Islam itself.