the Experience of Islam in an expanding Europe
I've got a job, and can only take a little time off, so when the Center
for European Studies hosted
this (25-27 March)
I only had time for one session. Wish
I'd heard about the keynote address in time to go
("Religious Revivalism among European
Muslims: Middle East Import or Indigenous").
I went to the "Islam and the Politics of State" panel on Friday.
It was the second panel of the day. Luckily I'd brought some work to
do in case things started late--which they did, of course.
I suppose it is gratifying to see that physicists are not the only ones who
have trouble with speakers running overtime, or with talks with grand
titles and lightweight content.
The first fellow, Sam Cherribi, was a Dutch Member of Parliament,
member of the Council of Europe, and in fact is currently running for office.
His talk would have perhaps been the most interesting of the bunch:
"Europe's 'Muslim Problem': What Political Elites Think." A pity somebody
had put the fear of the clock into him--he ran through his slides so fast
I couldn't read half of them. After the Seville summit he collared a
number of officials from all over Europe. He found that left and right
agreed that the MidEast problems were transnational, that illegal
immigration was a key problem, and that Muslim immigrants must respect
European democracy. In June 2001, the "Muslim problem" was not seen as
dangerous, but people worried that they were importing the problems of the
Middle East.
The leftist politicians tended to see poverty and
inequality as driving the illegal immigration problems, while the right
tended to see inadequate laws or enforcement as the issue--and each looked
for solutions accordingly. Not exactly earth-shattering news, but I
suppose you have to do a systematic check.
The second speaker was a French expert in immigration in general,
though not necessarily Islam in particular. Catherine Wihtol de Wenden
spoke to "The Institutionalization of Islam in Europe." I had a little
trouble following her at first, and so I missed some of the details of
a very interesting assertion: that her group found poor correlation between
immigration and Islamism and hooliganism, but strong correlation between
Islamism and prison. I presume that means that the more vicious forms of
Islamism recruit better in prisons than in the general population.
She said there were 15 million non-Europeans in Europe, with about
12 million "Muslim." 60% of the
Muslims had been
there more than 20 years, and the rest were mostly refugees. Reactions to
refugees differ--radical Islamists are accepted in UK and Germany, but not
France, while Algerian refugees are more welcome in France. Of the 3 or 4
nationalities that dominate the Muslim groups, 2 are "diaspora-like:" the
Turks (mostly Germany) and Moroccans (?accent? and Spain), with Pakistanis
and Bangladeshis (UK) as the next largest groups.
France thinks it
has about 4 million Muslims, but can't be sure because the census is now
legally forbidden to ask about religion. Most of these Muslims are poor. Both
France and Belgium have Muslim political parties, and both countries created
central councils to address questions of conflict (marriage law, sacrificial
customs, etc). Elsewhere in Europe these are usually local level discussions.
People are still arguing about what it means to be a citizen of the Europe.
It isn't clear if any of these great debates are getting anywhere.
Practicing Muslims she alleges to be rather rare--presumably as
rare
as practicing Christians. It isn't always clear what "Islam as used" (her
phrase) means--many Muslims are becoming very national-minded.
Sean McLoughlin from Leeds addressed "Muslim Leaders, the State and Civil
Society: Politics, Representation and the Muslim Council of Britain."
The moderator called time on him twice. He discussed the Muslim Council
of Britain (MCB) which was established in 1997 for "constructive engagement"
on a national level. The UK has about 1.6 million muslims, almost all
from the Indian subcontinent, and
overwhelmingly urban (1/3 are in London alone). The Pakistanis and
Bangladeshis are mostly poor (60% of Pakistanis are on the dole, compared to
16% of anglos), but the Muslims from India tend to be middle class or better.
Unity wasn't particularly noticeable until the 90's, when the state suggested
the Muslims get together into some larger group. {Yes, I know this
conflicts with de Wenden's earlier talk.} The MCP replaced an earlier
organization, and is currently facing challenges of its own from new
groups {types not
specified}.
Multicultural policies tend to reinforce ethnicity in the lower class
Muslims, but middle and upper class Muslims look to a more cosmopolitan
identity.
He circulated a slick magazine put out by those aforementioned
upper/middle class Muslims. It resembled Christian general interest
magazines put out by conservative Christian denominations, but with
Muslim observances rather than Bible study. It even had a "Is the Passion
anti-semitic" article. I didn't see any objection to it on Muslim grounds,
curiously enough.
The state has begun to publicly criticize things previously protected
by "multiculturalism," such as importing imams, contracting transcontinental
marriages, and so on.
The MCP is spread thin, with leadership mostly middle class and of Indian
background rather than Pakistani, and he said it didn't accommodate the
Pakistani "peasants" well. It has a hair-trigger attitude: the
slightest hint of a shadow of a thought of prejudice against Muslims
evokes letters of complaint. The activists are associated mostly with
Reformist Islam {sorry, I don't know what he means by this}. Some seem to
have Deobandi background (Sufi tradition, but ultra-conservative) and
some Jameli Islam {?didn't hear this?}. The government doesn't think them
entirely moderate. {Deobandis are supposed to be moderate?}
Jorgen Nielsen, from the University of Birmingham, telegraphed his
notes as quickly as possible in order to meet an engagement to talk on the
radio. He was the "comment" man. And so, briefly: Israel/Palestine
questions matter more to Arab first generation immigrants (not
so much second generation or non-Arab), or at least this was true until
the last few years. Italy is questioning whether mosques are political
centers as well as religious ones. "In many ways politicians reflect
the public as well as lead the public." {Yes, he was dead serious.}
There are class distinctions among Muslims. For example, the headscarf is
middle/upper class, while the burka is lower class. Religions which are
neither Christian nor Muslim are getting annoyed with the focus on Muslims,
and the UK government is trying to defocus and talk more generically and
inclusively.
I do not vouch for the accuracy of any of their claims; I merely
report what I heard.
