Return of the Muslim
In a few days time a cluster of far-right groups under the name the Stop the Islamisation of Europe alliance will hold rallies in London, Copenhagen and Marseilles to demand an end to what they call "the overt and covert expansion of Islam in Europe". Although the events are likely to attract no more than a handful of protesters, their message resonates widely. On Saturday the rightwing People's party, notorious for its virulent hostility to ethnic minorities and Muslims, emerged as the victor in the Swiss elections, taking 29% of the vote, the best electoral performance by a party in the country's elections since 1919.
The far right is on the ascendancy in many parts of Europe. Beyond its explicit party political expressions, this assumes a more worrying form. What had been traditionally confined to the margins of dominant political discourse is progressively penetrating its mainstream, with parties of the centre absorbing much of the far right's populist rhetoric. This underlies the complaint by Jean-Marie le Pen, leader of the racist National Front, that Nicolas Sarkozy had "stolen his clothes". Across the Channel, the Tory candidate for the London mayoralty, Boris Johnson, believes that "to any non-Muslim reader of the Koran, Islamophobia - fear of Islam - seems a natural reaction".
We are witnessing a reversion to the type of cultural essentialism that dominated political and academic discourse until the mid-1900s. Its central theme, the purity and superiority of European culture, was dealt a powerful blow by the tradition of post-colonial studies and radical critique of Orientalism. The trend brought together progressive, leftist voices from Europe and the US with others from the south amid the dismantling of modern-day empires and the rise of developing world liberation movements.
The same discourse is reconstructing its terms today by substituting the classical east-west bipolarity at its core with one of "Islam" and "west". The west's rationality, tolerance, individualism and freedom are now contrasted with Islam's superstition, fanaticism, fatalism and repressiveness. In the history books, this trend has manifested itself in the resurrection of the myth of the benevolent empire, championed by figures such as Niall Ferguson and Andrew Roberts.
September 11, the emergence of violent radical Islamic groups, and the war on terror have created fertile ground for the revival of this tradition. Its spirit permeates much of the language current in the political sphere and many sectors of the media. What had once been cause for disrepute now goes unquestioned and barely remarked upon. The vocabulary is various, from immigration, integration and citizenship to terrorism, radicalism, Islamism and an endless chain of -isms. But the referent is consistent: Islam and Muslims. It is a game of insinuations, of codes, in which meaning is readily conveyable without need for explicitness or directness.
Beyond all the noise about Europe's "Muslim problem" lurks a growing unease about the changing texture of European society. Gone are the days of pure white, Christian Europe. Now Europe is multi-ethnic, multireligious and multicultural, a fact which many find hard to swallow. Muslims are part of this evolving reality, but the idea that the continent is being Islamised is a figment of the right's imagination.
In a European population of some 540 million, Muslims number between 20 million and 25 million, or about 4%. The majority are underprivileged, and socially, economically and politically marginalised. Whatever the scaremongers say, Muslim armies are not at Europe's gate preparing to conquer.
Obsession with the question of Britishness in the UK and with les valeurs de la Rpublique in France reflects a state of anxiety about identity. The collapse of empire, globalisation and flow of immigrants from the old colonies brought new peoples into Europe's bosom. The Muslim other - the Saracen or Turk, in opposition to whom Europe defined its imaginary geographic and cultural borders - is now located within its frontiers, a sort of internal outsider. From the periphery of the empire in distant overseas colonies in Lahore or Algiers, it has moved to the periphery of capitals and industrial cities in London or Paris. The borders of identity and culture are overlapping, making it impossible to draw rigid boundaries between east and west, Europe and Islam, white and black.
At the heart of Europe's "Muslim problem" is an impotence and perhaps unwillingness to extend the norm of tolerance to newcomers from the Muslim world. Tolerance is not an abstract concept but the child of a specific historical context. In Europe it was the product of the religious wars, which ended in France, for instance, with the Edict of Nantes in 1598. Following the horrors of the Holocaust, the norm was widened to include Jews. And with the civil rights movement in the US, this was further extended to black people and other ethnic minorities - legally and theoretically, though not in practice. There is still resistance to the norm's broadening to encompass Muslims, something evident in the controversy over the building of mosques in northern Europe, as well as in the "veil problem" in France, Germany and other countries.
Some quasi-liberals continuously ask how we can be tolerant with people who preach intolerance - by whom they mean, of course, Muslims. A better question could be: to what extent are those who profess tolerance really tolerant?
Soumaya Ghannoushi is director of research at IslamExpo
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Do not bash Romesh, he is only a small particle, trying to learn something here...have a nice weekend everybody..
I do not think that anybody is abusing Romesh Chander. Expect that he has tendencies to abuse this web site and hurl offensive remarks on others especially Muslims. He may say anything, including the preposterous remark that Muslims have low level of education. I certainly do not know what his level is.
What goes around comes around. Every reader or a visitor has a right to reply to his comments. If it is offensive, is it wrong to express our displeasure ? I don't see any shades or element of intellect in him. Or the misguided views that he so often expressed. He has a penchant to provoke others, that is all I see in him. I, for that matter will not reply to his antics unless I find it absolutely neccesary.
It simply shows you fail to see the agenda of the right wing extremists is to sow the seeds of strife by making Christians hate Muslims and Hindus hate Muslims (and vice versa if such a term is applicable here).
Remember Allah (SWT) has said in words to this effect that HE, ALLAH (SWT)is the Best of Plotters!
Wonder why Islami City allows such articles online. Is Islamic City following its own hidden agenda?
Now in order to make entry of Asian/Arab Muslims difficult and stop the preaching of Islam, there had to be a catalyst. An event that would justify sealing the borders to Muslim and justify putting Muslim scholars and 'Dais' behind bars. Come September 11. Why WTC7 (the achilles heel of Bush and his coterie) came crashing down on it's own footprint, someone will ask someday to the US congress but till then, the groundwork for stopping the tide of conversions and Muslim immigrants has been put in place.
And the reverse occupation of Muslim lands for the worst case of 'states sponsored burglary' of Oil...is unfolding.
Now, trolls like Romesh ask, Muslims should look why they are being denied access to european lands.
Why the muslims are made refugees in their own lands, their homes and lands confiscated and inhabitations destroyed in the name of 'shock and awe' and 'collateral damage', who's asking?
But Muslims should ignore the trolls like Romesh who may or may not be a Hindu but lurk around here to make a point against Islam and Muslims.
Instead, we should seek solace in these verses of God's own word:
"..And (the unbelievers) plotted and planned, and Allah too planned, and the best of planners is Allah."
I and many Muslims like me are not perturbed at all by this hate campaign. We hold fast to the belief in ALLAH alone.
Europeans, the right wing of left wings, or whatever wings they wish to call themselves may do as what they please. Europeans ( including my ancestral lineage )also have excesses of baggage in history. They were the conqeurors and conquistadors. Their conquest of Latin America, the brutal treatment of the Incas, and the mayans speaks volumes of their behaviourial norms.
This hate campaign against Muslim is nothing new anyway. So what ? Whither the democracy, the liberty and freedom that they, Europeans claim to hold so dear. And all these claim for respect for human lives. And human culture and diversities.
Muslims like me will continue to call all Europeans to Islam, but at the same time we respect their choice of faith. There is no compulsion of religion in Islam. If Europeans really study history and the growth of Islamic civilization then they'll be amazed by Islam and the message that Islam brings. Tony Blair, a former Premier of the U.K is said to have read the tranlated copy of the Quran. In one speech in the UK House of Commons he mentioned that Jesus ( a.s ) is very reverred in Islam as a Prophet of GOD. Blair also mentioned that there are more reverence to Mary the virgin in the Quran than the bible itself.
As a Muslim, I can tell you this, our Quran is the same, there is no iota of difference in any Quran. We have the same Quran everywhere. And our message to the west is the same, Accept Islam. But even if you don't then that is your freedom of choice that we'll have to respect. Infact in one hadith, Prophet Muhammad was saidv to have mentioned that if any Muslim does any injustice to a non Muslim, then the Prophet will be a witness against such injustice in the Day of Judgment.
Wassalam.
The Lord Jesus Christ said "I am the way, the truth and the life..." Are they bearing the message of Christ? How are they bearing the message of truth otherwise? Are they not hitting on the ground of truth on the heads of the drunken and decaying west to take root and grow thereon with their supplanter, the last prophet considered to supersede the beginning?
Because Muslims are the bearer of the message of Truth.
Peace, Rod
Please remember two things:
1. What did the Jewish people do in Europe to deserve the treatment they got from the fellow Europeans.
2. Once the flame of hatred is kindled it burns every one. Do you think others who look different in the European society will be spared even if it targets Muslims?
Please try to spread peace and encourage building bridges.
Now tell me what did muslims do to earn this wrath of europeans? There must be some reason behind it. If they are racists, then they have to be racists against all, i.e., against Hindus, Buddhists, etc too.
As usual, The article does just the complaining; but no explaining. May be it is easier to be a cry baby.