Muslims in 21st Century Europe

Structural and Cultural Perspectives

Anna Triandafyllidou

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9781134004447
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Muslims in 21st Century Europe explores the interaction between native majorities and Muslim minorities in various European countries with a view to highlighting different paths of integration of immigrant and native Muslims.

Starting with a critical overview of the institutionalisation of Islam in Europe and a discussion on the nature of Muslimophobia as a social phenomenon, this book shows how socio-economic, institutional and political parameters set the frame for Muslim integration in Europe. Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden are selected as case studies among the 'old' migration hosts. Italy, Spain and Greece are included to highlight the issues arising and the policies adopted in southern Europe to accommodate Muslim claims and needs.

The book highlights the internal diversity of both minority and majority populations, and analyses critically the political and institutional responses to the presence of Muslims.

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Muslims in 21st century Europe

Conceptual and empirical issues

Anna Triandafyllidou

1. Framing the ‘Muslim issue’

This book explores the interaction and integration between native majorities and Muslim minorities in different European countries. Taking into account the internal diversity of both minority and majority populations, it critically analyses the political and institutional responses to the presence of Muslims and how national governments and other stakeholders promote commonality or difference.

Europe has experienced increasing tensions between national majorities and marginalized Muslim communities. Such conflicts have included: the violence in northern England between native British and Asian Muslim youth (2001); the civil unrest amongst France’s Muslim Maghrib communities (2005); and the Danish cartoon crisis in 2006 following the publication of pictures of the Prophet Muhammad. Muslim communities have also come under intense scrutiny in the wake of the terrorist events in the United States (2001), Spain (2004) and England (2005). There is growing scepticism amongst European governments over the question of Turkey’s accession into the European Union, a country that is socioculturally and religiously different from the present EU-27 (European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia 2006a; 2006b).

During the first years of the twenty-first century, politicians and academics have been debating intensively the reasons underlying such tensions and what should be done to enhance civic cohesion in European societies. One question raised by these debates is how much cultural diversity can truly be accommodated within liberal and secular democracies. Some thinkers and politicians have advanced the claim that it is impossible to accommodate Muslims in European countries because their cultural traditions and religious faith are incompatible with secular democratic states. Others have argued that Muslims can be accommodated in the socio-political order of European societies provided they adhere to a set of civic values that lie at the heart of European democratic traditions and that reflect the secular nature of society and politics in Europe. Others still have questioned the kind of secularism that underpins state institutions in Europe.

The debate has been intensive in the media, in political forums as well as in scholarly circles. In policy terms, the main conclusion drawn from such debates has been that multicultural policies have failed and that returning to an assimilation-based approach (emphasizing national culture and values) would be desirable. The Netherlands, for example, which has been a forerunner in multicultural policies since the 1980s, has now established integration courses for all immigrants (both newcomers and earlier arrivals) and recently a civic integration test for prospective migrants to take before leaving their country of origin (Ter Wal 2007; Vasta 2007; see also Thijl Sunier in this volume). In the face of mounting civil unrest and the social exclusion of second-generation immigrant youth, the French government has reasserted its republican civic integration model banning ostentatious religious symbols in schools and prioritizing labour market considerations in migration policy over migrant rights – for instance, the right to a family life (Kastoryano 2006; Guiraudon 2006).

Germany, home to one of the largest Muslim communities in Europe, is a somewhat mixed case. On the one hand, since the late 1990s the country’s political elite acknowledged that Germany is an immigration country with a diverse social culture, making integration the new buzzword; on the other, the restrictive side to the liberal citizenship law implemented in 2000 led to a decrease in naturalizations (Schiffauer 2006; Green, 2005). Though integration remains the guiding principle of German migration policy, increasing pressures are put on migrants, both as individuals and as communities, to perform better in schools and in professional positions. The extent to which migrants, and in particular Muslim migrants, feel ‘German’ or even ‘European’ remains an open question (see also Daniel Faas in this volume, and Faas 2008).

Britain and Sweden are perhaps the only European countries that have not turned away from the ideals and policies of multiculturalism. Although the British government introduced a ‘Life in the United Kingdom test’ (a civic integration test) and civic ceremonies in an attempt to retrieve cohesion based on an inclusive understanding of Britishness, particularly in the aftermath of the July 2005 London bombings, politicians and political theorists have emphasized the importance of safeguarding multiculturalism rather than abandoning it (see Tariq Modood and Nasar Meer in this volume, and Modood 2007). In Sweden, the approach to cultural and religious diversity is predicated on a strong social welfare system and a political ideology that, though secular, has allowed for Muslims to express their identities on an individual and collective level. In recent years, however, the poor educational and labour market performance of some Muslim groups has led to a reconsideration of this model, with now a greater emphasis on individual responsibility during the integration process in the destination country (see Otterbeck in this volume).

Meanwhile, as traditional immigration countries in northern Europe exhibit deep policy contradictions when confronted with jihadist terrorism and social unrest among immigrant communities, the so-called ‘new hosts’ like Spain, Italy and Greece are struggling with their new realities as immigrant host countries. The European multiculturalism crisis comes at the same time that these countries are acknowledging their de facto multicultural and multi-ethnic composition. But the perceived failure of the cultural diversity approach adopted by the ‘old hosts’ discourages multicultural integration policies in southern Europe, and reinforces the view that immigration’s economic advantages may only be reaped after immigrants become assimilated into the dominant national culture (Zapata-Barrero 2006; Triandafyllidou 2002; Ambrosini 2004). Although immigrant populations in southern Europe are not predominantly Muslim, the question of religious diversity slowly comes to the fore as these populations settle and the Muslim sectors begin expressing their particular needs and wishes (see chapters by Zapata-Barrero and de Witte, Russo Spena, and Triandafyllidou in this volume).

The question of Muslim integration is also to a certain extent hindered by the European integration process. Old and new member states strive to accept diversity within Europe as well as to define their geopolitical and cultural position within the continuously enlarging EU. National identities are under pressure by the Europeanization process – especially the former communist countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 (Kuus 2004; Triandafyllidou and Spohn 2003). The question of Turkey’s accession into the EU has given rise to fervent debates about the Christian (or not) roots of Europe, about the compatibility of a predominantly Muslim, albeit secular, country within the EU, and about the borders of Europe – where does Europe end effectively? In this process of identity negotiation and geopolitical reorganization within the EU, the challenge of Islam comes as one more complexity in the management of diversity in Europe, which, if anything, is less desirable and more alien than intra-European diversity. Although the EU indirectly, and sometimes even directly, supports minority protection and combats discrimination, the overall Europeanization process has certainly not made the integration of Muslims in specific member states any simpler. On the contrary, long-term Muslim residents fully integrated in their country of settlement discover they are sometimes at a disadvantage in EU member states compared with other newcomers who gain European citizenship.

The first decade of the twenty-first century is marked by considerable pessimism, particularly in comparison to the rise of multicultural citizenship ideals and policies in the 1990s, and the then general optimism regarding the accommodation of Muslim claims and needs in European societies. The current onset of a global economic crisis makes the picture particularly gloomy; the perceived competition for scarce job openings occasionally leads to xenophobic and racist incidents against people of Asian or Maghrib origin (people with darker skin). Such incidents seem to have multiplied in southern Europe during the last months.

This book responds to the need for a deeper understanding of the causes of the perceived incompatibility between European liberal democratic societies and their Muslim members. We argue that in order better to understand Muslim minority and native non-Muslim majority claims and needs, we have to look at both structural and cultural factors within each group. We need to look beyond religious affinity to the national, cultural and socio-economic features of different Muslim communities across Europe as well as their contexts of settlement in their current countries of residence. Furthermore, the book argues that in order to understand Muslim minority–native majority interaction we need to investigate the discursive processes that organize their relations and positively or negatively highlight commonality and difference.

The following section introduces the conceptual background to the country studies that follow. In particular, the notions of tolerance, pluralism, multiculturalism and integration are discussed. The third section presents the structural and cultural factors to be considered, while section four attempts to offer an overview of European Muslim populations. Section five presents the contents of this volume and explains how they are organized.

2. Secularism, tolerance and multiculturalism

The special aim of this book is to highlight, explore and assess the intertwining of cultural and structural factors in Muslim minority and native non-Muslim majority claims and needs that are often framed by media and political discourses as incompatible. In this section of the book we shall discuss briefly the main concepts on which the book rests, including the notion of minority (native or immigrant), the intertwining of ethnicity and religion as regards Muslim minority definition in Europe today, the concept of integration, and the ideas of secularism and religious pluralism. This section also proposes a conceptual–theoretical continuum along which we can place different views on how to organize Muslim minority and non-Muslim majority interaction today in Europe.

Studies in this volume are concerned with both native and immigrant Muslim populations residing in Europe. A distinction between ethnic minorities and migrant populations is generally useful in the study of ethnic politics as usually these two different types of minorities enjoy different sets of rights. Native minorities are defined as populations that historically have been established in a given territory and which have taken part in the formation of the (national or multinational) state in which they live. Usually their participation in state-building is recognized in the legal constitution and they are guaranteed special rights regarding the preservation of their cultural, religious or linguistic heritage. In some countries, there are special provisions regarding the political representation of a native minority in cases where that minority is so numerically small that it risks being left out of the political system.

Immigrant populations emerge as a result of international migration. Receiving countries assume different approaches towards these populations, some encouraging not only socio-economic but also political integration of immigrants and their offspring. Other countries have restrictive policies that keep immigrants and sometimes their second-generation offspring in a status of denizenship. Even when the members of a given immigrant group have acquired the citizenship of the country of settlement, collective minority rights do not always follow automatically. In other words, any concerns that immigrant communities may have with regard to the safeguarding of their cultural traditions or language remain ongoing after they obtain citizenship rights and usually have to be negotiated with the country of settlement.

Muslims in Europe tend to fall within this latter category of immigrant communities. Among the countries studied in this volume, Greece is the only country that has a significant native Muslim minority. Having said this, it is worth noting that immigrant populations who come from former colonies may be considered as an intermediate category between native minorities and immigrant groups because they have special historical, cultural and political ties with the country of settlement. In fact, in several of the countries studied here, post-colonial migrants (e.g. Commonwealth citizens in Britain, Algerians in France, Surinamese in the Netherlands) have enjoyed in the past and to this day a special status¹ as a recognition of their historical relationship with the country of settlement.

The distinction between native minorities and immigrant populations as well as the intermediate (in terms of rights and recognition) position of post-colonial minorities are pertinent here for understanding national contexts and positions towards Muslim minorities or migrant populations, but they are just one factor among many that shape the interaction between Muslim minorities and non-Muslim majorities in Europe.

The need to distinguish between different categories of Muslim populations (native vs. immigrant) eventually brings us to reflect on the linkage between religion and ethnicity for European Muslims. Indeed, Muslim residents or citizens of European countries are generally registered in national censuses and other statistical surveys in relation to their nationality or ethnicity of origin. This is actually one of the reasons why the number of Muslims residing in any one country is uncertain and can usually only be deduced by reference to nationality or ethnicity rather than religion. This lack of data on religion can be attributed both to the principle, in liberal democracies, that religion is an individual and private matter (and hence should not become the subject matter of state classifications and registers), and to a policy concern that registration of religion might give way to religious discrimination and prejudice rather than serve the populations registered.

Discussing the relationship between ethnicity and religion in general, or with particular reference to Europe’s Muslims goes beyond the scope of this chapter. But the perspective this chapter proposes for analysing the situation of Muslims in different European countries makes the assumption that religion, and in particular Islam, has become a politically, culturally and symbolically important dimension of difference that often overshadows ethnicity (see also Erdenir in this volume). As Modood argues (Modood 2007), being a Muslim means having a complex identity which is subtly intertwined with numerous other aspects of an individual’s identity. Although the salience of Muslim identity differs in relation to context, it has nonetheless become a significant point of difference that largely conditions the social and political experiences of Muslims both as individuals and as members of groups (Modood 1990, 2005).

This book is concerned with the interaction between Muslim minority populations and non-Muslim majorities. It is thus not a book directly concerned with Muslim ‘integration’. Indeed the use of this term has been deliberately avoided in setting the framework for analysing the Muslim situation in different European countries because of the imprecision of the concept. In some countries integration is understood as a two-way process involving both ‘hosting’ majorities and migrant or native minorities and their respective institutions; in others, integration ...

Table of contents

• Routledge/European Sociological Association Studies in European Societies
• Contents
• Contributors
• 1 Muslims in 21st century Europe
• 2 Islamophobia qua racial discrimination
• 3 Public policies towards Muslims and the institutionalization of ‘Moderate Islam’ in Europe
• 4 Muslims in Germany
• 5 Britain
• 6 Sweden
• 7 Islam in the Netherlands, Dutch Islam
• 8 From Empire to Republic, the French Muslim dilemma1
• 9 Muslims in Italy
• 10 Muslims in Spain
• 11 Greece
• Index