Muslim Immigrants: A Bridge between Two Cultures?

Ingmar Karlsson is Sweden’s consul-general in Istanbul.

 

 

Islam and Christianity have been living side by side for almost fourteen hundred years, always as neighbours, mostly as rivals, and far too often as enemies. In fact, they may be regarded as co-religions since they share the same Jewish, Hellenistic and Oriental heritage. At one and the same time they have been old acquaintances and intimate hereditary enemies, and their conflicts have been particularly bitter precisely because of their common origins. The two sides have been divided more by their similarity than by their differences.

 

Islam is therefore not as foreign to Christians as it might appear to be in the light of Western prejudices and clichés. One of the most persistent and widespread myths is that Charles Martel, the ruler of the Franks, saved the West from destruction by his victory over the “Saracens” at Poitiers in 732. The Saracens were driven back over the Pyrenees and they returned to southern Spain where a Muslim state subsequently existed for almost eight hundred years. This Islamic presence on the European continent did not lead to a collapse of Western civilisation but instead to a unique and fruitful symbiosis between Islam, Christianity and Judaism which resulted in an unparalleled boom in science, philosophy, culture and art.

 

At the close of the Middle Ages, both Islam and Judaism were constitutive elements in the formation of Europe. As a result, Islam is simultaneously an alien, an original and, because of growing migration, a new element in the Europe of today—a Europe that is increasingly populated by people who, like the so-called enanciados in Moorish Spain, live in a no-man’s land between different cultures. 

Immigration 

There are already between fifteen million and twenty million Muslims in the European Union and their numbers will increase because of continuing migration. Some estimates speak of there being about sixty million European Muslims in twenty-five years’ time. The European Union is therefore no longer conceivable without an Islamic “green” component. Whether it will be possible to construct the “European house” on the model of the Alhambra—the palace that symbolises multicultural Moorish Spain—is therefore a decisive question for the future of Europe. Racism, intolerance and a narrow nationalism have already gained strength throughout Europe in reaction to the present level of immigration, which is insignificant compared with what we are likely to see in the future.

 

If integration fails and immigrants of Muslim background feel that they are being subjected to religious tutelage, forced into ghettos and socially marginalised, with continuing high rates of unemployment, Europeans will have to reckon with the emergence of underground fundamentalist Qur’anic schools in their immigrant suburbs, and with teachers who urge their pupils to fight with all their means against what they regard as oppressive European societies.

 

Instead of a modern, tolerant “Euro-Islam” we will then see the development of a “ghetto-Islam”, supported by fundamentalist forces in the Islamic world. Radical mullahs throughout western Europe are already now attempting to exploit the psychological, cultural and material problems of Muslim immigrants for their own purposes, and politicians such as France’s Jean-Marie Le Pen, Jörg Haider in Austria and most recently Pia Kjaersgaard and her Danish People’s Party are putting wind in their sails through the polarisation they have advocated and created.

 

If developments take this direction, we must reckon that militant Islamist groups will also endeavour to pursue in Europe their struggle with the Western world, which they regard as the incarnation of all evil.

 

In this case, a “holy war” could become a reality in western Europe sooner than we suppose, though not in the form of a military struggle between the West and the Islamic world, but as a kind of permanent guerrilla warfare in the ghetto-suburbs of our major cities.

 

To prevent this from happening is probably the greatest challenge we Europeans have to meet in the years to come.

 

There are several questions we need to confront.

 

To what extent should European countries be opened up to non-European immigration, including the reception of refugees?

 

What religious, cultural and linguistic elements in the identity of immigrants are to be furthered, tolerated or resisted? Multiculturalism has become a prestigious concept, but it has a broad spectrum of meanings, ranging from the question of whether the genital mutilation of girls should be tolerated and whether girls should be allowed to wear the veil in schools, to the issue of multicultural curricula. 

Integration 

One essential prerequisite for successful integration is that Westerners broaden their knowledge of the diversity of Islam and the varied nature of Muslim immigration. Now that the red communist peril has disappeared, we are often made to believe that it has been replaced by a green Muslim threat. This image is already being exploited to reinforce the feeling of European unity by depicting a scenario of uniform, fanatical Muslim masses preparing to storm the bastions of the West’s welfare systems under the green banner of Islam, with scimitars in one hand and the Qur’an in the other.

 

Europe’s Muslims, however, are not a featureless Third World mob, but people of all social classes and of varying degrees of religiosity. Most have a relaxed relationship with religion and only a minority are organised members of a religious or political community.

 

As a result, Europe is not currently facing the threat of a fundamentalist fifth column of Muslim immigrants. Instead, Islam’s internal splits are clearly reflected in the diaspora. Muslims in Europe are divided not only by their different languages, cultures and ethnicities, but also by the various branches and sects of Islam, which are often in bitter competition with one another for Muslim souls. Perhaps the greatest problem currently faced by Muslim immigrants is that owing to their diversity they often lack a common spokesman or representative organisation which can present their case. This is not least a problem for the many secular Muslims who want to integrate into European societies.

 

A policy designed to facilitate the integration of Muslim immigrant groups must be based on the following facts. First, there are already large Muslim communities in most west European states. These communities will not only expand but will also demand greater political influence as increasing numbers of Muslims become naturalised citizens and are enfranchised in their new home countries.

 

Three to four decades ago, Muslim immigrants were coming to Europe in search of work and they planned to return home as soon as possible. They therefore remained marked by their culture of origin, Indo-Pakistani, North African or Turkish. The parents tried to protect their children from the unfamiliar European environment rather than integrating them into it. But most of these immigrants never went back. Their children were born in Europe and became better educated than their parents. This led to new ways of thinking, and now we can see that some kind of silent revolution is taking place among the younger Muslims in Europe. European Muslims are now Muslims and not North African, Indo-Pakistani or Turkish Muslims, and a European Islamic culture is slowly developing.

 

Islam is thus already today an integral part of Europe and a European religion, and just as we speak of Eastern Christianity so we will soon be talking about Western Islam. Islam must therefore be recognised and regarded as a “domestic” European religion. There is nothing which intrinsically prevents a Muslim from being as good a Swede as is a member of the Pentecostal Bretheren or an adherent of the Jewish faith; there is nothing which says that mosques cannot become as natural a feature of Swedish cities as churches have always been in Aleppo, Damascus, Mosul or Cairo.

 

Second, Muslims are not as easy to integrate and not as willing to be integrated as previous immigrant groups. Although it accepts Jews and Christians as “peoples of the book”, Islam has nearly always, with some exceptions, for example in India, been a dominant and hegemonistic religion in historical terms. In Europe, Muslims must learn to live as a minority and to accept the fundamental pillars of modern European societies, that is to say, pluralism and a secular social system characterised by tolerance of people with different political or religious viewpoints.

 

An Islamic identity encompasses customs and traditions which deviate from those regarded as acceptable in the societies where many Muslims now live. Demands will be made for special rights and for a special status, in addition to the entitlements enjoyed by the native population. In many cases, these demands will not only be difficult to satisfy, but impossible, and this will lead to tensions.

 

Undesirable and undemocratic political tendencies in Muslim countries of origin may become channelled into the immigrants’ new home countries. Both the governments of Muslim states and various Muslim sects and organisations may attempt to exploit the immigrants for their own purposes.

 

In the light of these factors, what is the best way to integrate Muslim immigrants?

 

The objective must be integration which is as rapid as possible, taking into account and respecting those who, while respecting European values, wish to maintain their own cultural and religious identity. Taking into account special religious features must not, however, extend to excusing pupils from aspects of their education which do not suit their parents. Europe must also not be too easy-going in dealing with religious and political fanatics who utilise their exile in the continent for subversive activities directed against their home countries or for internal disputes.

 

Under no circumstances should tolerance be extended to totalitarian views or ideas. While Europe should demonstrate sympathy for Islam as a religion and ensure that the prerequisites for the exercise of religion are as favourable as possible, it must also demonstrate firmness regarding compliance with its own laws. At the same time, it must beware of regarding all expressions of religion as signs of fundamentalism, or of unwillingness to adapt and become integrated into European societies. A process of Islamisation among immigrants is dangerous only if it comes into conflict with the norms of a pluralistic society and a democratic state.

 

For many immigrants from Muslim countries, religion and a general sense of piety are one way of counteracting their feeling of rootlessness. Thus, a return to religion may be a by-product of the break with their own cultural background and not necessarily a protest against the new society in which they live. Hence, greater religiosity is not the same thing as suspicion and intolerance of a secularised European environment; rather, it may create an inner tranquillity which promotes tolerance and hence integration.

 

Individuals who devote themselves to preaching hatred against Europe and Christianity, and who abuse Europe’s pluralistic societies, must be dealt with firmly. But, at the same time, radical Muslim groups must not be regarded as an expression of an overall campaign to attack the Western world from within. There is no such plan and, furthermore, there is no Muslim leadership capable of drawing up such a campaign. Antagonism and enmity between different Muslim sects are often stronger than hatred of the West. Only a few of the sixty thousand to seventy thousand practising Muslims in Sweden are fundamentalists. As far as the vast majority are concerned, the cultural and identity-supportive aspects of their religion are its most important factors.

 

Only a depoliticised and liberal Islam can be integrated into Europe, and such an integration is possible only if it is paralleled by economic and social integration. In turn, one prerequisite for a development of this kind is controlled immigration and a common European immigration policy designed to create a liberal and tolerant Islamic community in Europe. 

Belonging and Identity 

If this is to be achieved, those who are willing to become integrated must feel that they are welcome and that they belong in Europe. The feeling of “where do I belong?” is one of the primary recruiting grounds for fundamentalists who want to create and exploit a spiritual ghetto under the banner, “You have no affinities either here or with the corrupt and morally decadent government in your home country. You have to fight against both of them.”

 

If Muslim immigrants are to be able to feel that they belong, it is essential that:

 

● The demonising factor is eliminated on a mutual basis. Knowledge of Islam must be improved in European schools. Ignorance breeds prejudice and hatred. The European and Western media more broadly must also rectify the stereotyped and oversimplified view of Islam which is still being conveyed.

 

● Everyone who wants to be integrated into European society be protected, including those under threat and under pressure not only from local extremists and groups hostile to immigrants, but also from Muslim extremist groups.

 

● Immigrants be given an opportunity to formulate and articulate their views and wishes.

 

A future Europe with a flourishing Muslim presence and a healthy European identity must be based on self-criticism, a permanent and open dialogue and a respect for diversity. Muslims can make a positive contribution to the construction of a new Europe. Their presence should be seen as a source of enrichment and not as a problem.

 

Muslim immigrants for their part should regard themselves as full citizens and participate in the social, economic, organisational and political life of the countries they inhabit. Nothing in European legislations prevents Muslims or any other citizens from making decisions in accord with their religion.

 

Muslims themselves must work with the aim of giving their young generations which grow up in Europe a cultural background of their own while, at the same time, integrating them socially into their European environment. Muslim communities must co-operate with one another and avoid fighting out their theological and political disputes on European territory.

 

As a result, a “domestic” European Muslim leadership will have to emerge, thus permitting the elimination of the label attached to Islam as an alien and dangerous cult. This domestic leadership will consist not only of Muslims born in Europe, but also of native converts.

 

Problems of discrimination should not be seen as “attacks on Islam” but as effects of social policies that can be changed by political means when Muslim citizens demand equal rights. Muslim communities must assume their responsibilities and engage in a dialogue among themselves and with the European environment and reject simplistic visions of “us versus them”. Muslim communities must not shut themselves off and become isolated minorities. Such a policy would only encourage Islamist extremist groups with their message, “You are more Muslim if you are against the West.”

 

Muslims must also place stress and value on civic education and citizen participation, which are necessary steps to achieving their legitimate rights. 

Questions of Allegiance 

Most Muslims are aware of the necessity to comply with the laws and regulations of their new home countries, but their willingness to do so is undermined in many quarters by external appeals from organisations which prefer a “pure” Islam, without compromise. Therefore, Europe must not tolerate the establishment of parallel political institutions, such as the attempts that have been made to create a “caliphate state” (Halifele devleti) in Germany or a separate Muslim parliament in Britain.

 

For the first time in their history Muslims are living as minorities in secular societies. Traditional Islamic theology divides the world into two zones, Dar al-Islam (the House of Islam) and Dar al-Harb (the House of War). This worldview assumes that Muslims will never be able to practise their religion properly in non-Muslim lands and therefore should not settle there.

 

A crucial question, therefore, is how Muslims in Europe should relate to the national legal systems in the countries where they live.

 

Thus far, Islamic legal experts have given no detailed global answers to these questions, but some basic principles have emerged from debates between ulema (religious scholars) from the Islamic world and Muslim intellectuals living in Europe:

 

● Muslims in Europe should see themselves as involved in a contract both moral and social with the country in which they live and should respect that country’s laws.

 

● European secular legislation should allow Muslims to practise the basics of their religion.

 

● The concept of Dar al-Harb is neither Qur’anic nor part of the prophetic tradition and should therefore be seen as outdated.

 

● Fresh ideas are therefore necessary, such as Dar ash-Shahada (the House of Testimony), a new concept referring to any place where Muslims can live according to the precepts of their religion.

 

Tariq Ramadan, grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, is one of the most prominent spokesmen of this new thinking. He has said, “As a Muslim I can be at home anywhere I am safe and where the rule of law protects my freedom of conscience and my freedom to worship. In this new environment my responsibility is to bear witness to my faith.”

 

Young Muslims are now going back to the text of the Qur’an and asking themselves, “Is what my parents used to do really part of my faith or is it part of their cultural tradition?” When the cultural surrounding changes, the interpretations will necessarily change. One concrete example is the increasing resistance among young European Muslim women to arranged marriages and conceptions of honour in their ancestral countries.

 

With access to mosques and religious instruction widely available, strictly religious problems are becoming more marginal. Instead, young Muslims are concerned with resolving the social and political issues facing their community, such as employment, equality in the labour market, political representation, and the way in which Islamic history and religion are taught in schools. Muslims are increasingly going to make their voices heard on these issues. They want to take part in government at the local, national and European level. 

Euro-Islam 

Young Muslims now mobilise for recognition, identity and survival. They often look upon themselves as a new force, distancing themselves from traditional and international bonds, wanting to be a European face of Islam. They are not only born in the West of Muslim parents. Some have grown up in mixed marriages and they know both a Muslim and a Christian way of living. They are born citizens of European states and speak English, German, Dutch, French or Swedish.

 

They are using Islam as a way of establishing the universal values they share with those around them. Defining their own identity as Muslim is thus a way of interacting with the rest of society.

 

With the sociological change there will also come an ideological change. In Islam, law and ethics are identical. If you change the ethics you thus change the law. Through the principle of ijtihad (to develop, interpret and apply Islamic doctrines to contemporary situations) there will be a new interpretation of Islam. The integration of Europe’s Muslims depends upon the adoption of a form of Islam that embraces the principal Western political values: pluralism, tolerance, the separation of religion and state, a democratic civil society, and individual human rights.

 

Today, we are already witnessing the emergence and creation of several European Muslim identities, German, French, British, Swedish, Dutch, etc. Interviews with Swedish Muslims show that they are focusing more and more on their presence, role and future in Sweden: what kind of multicultural Sweden do we as Muslims want to have in the future? What kind of multicultural state do we think is necessary to safeguard the long-term survival of Muslims as a cultural, ethnic and religious minority in Sweden and what can we as Muslims do to bring this about?

 

Swedish Muslims thus want to draft a new brand of Islam, one that aims to reconcile the basic tenets of the faith—such as the five pillars, social justice and submission to the will of God—with the realities of contemporary European life.

 

For this new generation “Euro-Islam” is not a zero-sum game. They see no contradiction in being Muslim and European at the same time. A report from the Swedish Muslim Youth Association contains the following declaration: “The goal for young Muslims should be to accept, understand and respect differences but also to understand common values and goals and try to implement them. Young Muslims should form a bridge between European and Muslim countries.”

 

European Islam could thus provide young Muslims with a way of respecting inherited traditions while living in a different world from their parents. It could also give them the confidence to practise their religion more openly, unlike their parents or grandparents who saw their stay in Europe as temporary and were content to express their faith in private. The new generation regards Europe as its home and sees no reason not to worship more publicly. 

A Cultural Bridge 

If immigrants are integrated in this way, Europe’s Islamic communities can become a bridge between Europe and the immigrants’ countries of origin. “Euro-Muslims” will then be able to set an example, and transmit democratic approaches and liberal ideas and reforms to their ancestral countries. This would enable a fruitful triangular relationship to develop between the Islamic communities, their ancestral countries and their new home countries, since many people living in the diaspora want to maintain close contact with their origins.

 

Thus, Muslims in the West could make a contribution to the search for an answer to a question that has haunted Islam for centuries: How are tradition and modernity to be reconciled? The decline of Islamic science and art had already begun in the fourteenth century. Hair-splitting theologians got the upper hand over scientists and poets and they, then as now in many places, saw salvation from political and social misery as lying in a literal interpretation of the Qur’an. The principle of taqlid (imitation) prevailed, prohibiting any opportunity to interpret the Qur’an freely. Instead, the theory prevailed that everything that was worth knowing was known already, having been revealed in the Qur’an, and that in general, knowledge was more reliable the closer the source was to the time of the Qur’anic revelation.

 

Taqlid thus implied a type of scientific and cultural doctrine of abstinence from which the Muslim world is still suffering. Intellectuals in many Muslim countries don’t have the freedom to analyse and find effective solutions to the problems of today. The tension between Islam and modernity could perhaps at least partly be answered by Muslim thinkers in Europe, and the solutions transferred back to the Muslim world.

 

If this were to happen, Europeans would repay an old debt to the Muslim world. The Arabs became the true inheritors of the ancient Hellenic culture to which we in Europe so often refer. In the eighth and ninth centuries, they saved and administered this heritage by extensive translations of classical Greek texts from Greek, Hebrew and Syriac sources into Arabic. The source texts, however, were not only translated but commented upon and criticised. Later on, scholars in Muslim Spain became the midwives of Western humanism by familiarising Christian Europe with these classics.

 

Let me conclude by stressing the importance Turkish membership of the European Union would have for efforts to integrate Muslim immigrants. A “no” to Turkey on religious and cultural grounds would be disastrous for Europe since it would send an immediate and strong message to the fastest-growing segments of the European population that they will always be considered unwelcome and as second-class citizens even if they choose a secular way of life.

 

Sending such a message could, before we know it, lead to the emergence of a ghetto Islam in Europe instead of a modern, tolerant, European Islam. Radical mullahs all over Europe are already doing their best to exploit Muslim immigrants’ psychological, cultural and material problems, and this message would only make their work easier. If this happens, we might soon witness a “clash of civilisations” in western Europe, not in the form of a military showdown between the West and the Islamic world, as envisaged by Samuel Huntington, the proponent of clash of civilisations theory, but in the form of continuous guerrilla warfare in the ghettoised suburbs of European cities.

 

Turkish membership of the European Union would facilitate a necessary integration process and thus counteract a development fraught with momentous consequences for Europe.