Dialogues, Muslims In The West: Source Of Concern Or Source Of Hope

Islam in the West: Source of Concern or Source of Hope? continued

Many of the setbacks faced by Muslims in Europe are common to immigrants in general, Klausen said, but so is an overall optimism about personal prospects, combined with support for the police and the electoral system. Despite the latter, however, radicalization has become a cause for concern, especially in Britain. This little–understood phenomenon is partly generational, she reiterated, but in need of much more concentrated research.

Klausen ended on a positive note, citing British educational statistics showing that Bangladeshi immigrants, many of whom are poor and have been the source of public concern, have – in the course of the last five years – reached higher average academic standards than Pakistani Muslims and have improved their comprehensive test scores for secondary education to a level on par with the general population.

Mustapha Tlili then observed that the European post–World War II “social pact” had not envisioned the permanent settlement of Muslim communities in the West. He asked Mr. Piet de Klerk whether the time has come to rethink the set of obligations and rights that define European citizenship, and whether this new “citizenship pact” should apply to all, including Europe’s 15–20 million Muslim residents.

De Klerk addressed three topics with respect to post–Word–War–II Netherlands: integration, welfare, and religion. In terms of integration, he said, despite several waves of immigrants since the 50’s—first from Spain, Portugal, and Italy, and later mainly from Morocco and Turkey—his country did not have a serious integration policy until the 90’s, until which point immigrants were envisioned as temporary workers. In terms of welfare, he mentioned the gradual tightening of rules determining state funded benefits such as retirement, disability, and unemployment, but asserted that the welfare state in the Netherlands is colorblind with regard to religion and faith. As for religion, he spoke of the country’s changing demographics. The Neterhlands was effectively a Christian nation until the mid–20th century, then underwent a period of rapid secularization in the 1960’s and 70’s, after which it saw the small–scale growth of beliefs like Buddhism and scientology, followed by the establishment of Islam as the country’s second most–practiced religion. Given its inherent absolutism as well as its visibility in the public sphere,including due to the religion’s abuse by terrorists, Islam often appears to be at odds with the relativist persepective of the Dutch majority, de Klerk said. The Dutch government, however, provides basic services irrespective of religion and demands only that its citizens abide by the law. In the interest of promoting the harmonious co–existence of culturally dissimilar groups, government programs have emphasized the need for integration and for a sustained debate about acceptable norms and values.

Pointing to the rejection of the European constitution in various referenda as proof that national citizenship pacts are pre–eminent over a European one, Piet de Klerk concluded by saying that Muslims are indeed a part of the pact in the Netherlands if they are citizens. De Klerk mentioned that, though the State does not ask about their personal faith, two Dutch State Secretaries hail from the predominantly Muslim countries of Morocco and Turkey; these and other examples of successful integration lead him to say there is more hope than concern about Islam in the West.

At this point, Mustapha Tlili opened the discussion to the audience, taking four questions at a time. The first was from Professor Richard Bulliet, who asked all four panelists the degree to which they saw the situations they described in their presentations applying to the United States. He noted that, in many respects, if one compared Muslim immigration in Europe with the historical African American migration from the south to the north of the U.S., he felt that Islam as a religion would not be a particularly relevant variable.

Another audience member, reacting to Jon Benjamin’s comments on the need for Islamic schools to inculcate mainstream British culture into their students, spoke of groups such as the Amish and Orthodox Jews in the U.S. who had chosen to withdraw from modern life in a law–abiding manner, and wondered why the U.K.’s does not recognize that integration to a specific norm may be incompatible with certain groups’ beliefs?

Hasan Mujtaba of the BBC Urdu asked the panelists if they shared responsibility for the Western double standard regarding Islamic militants, which the U.S. recruited, funded, and celebrated during the fight against the Soviets in the 1980’s, but now condemns as terrorists.

Jyette Klausen was asked to clarify her seemingly contrary call for patience on the one side, and immediate action on the other.

Mustapha Tlili responded first, emphasizing the panel’s focus on European Muslims, whom he said were primarily of a lower socio–economic class and more insular than their American counterparts.

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