Islam and Citizenship in Europe - The Europaeum

Report
Understanding Muslims as
Senior scholars and young researchers met in
Bologna to locate the place of Muslims in European
societies. LEON BUSKENS reviews the debates.
Europaeum has sponsored several scholarly meetings and
seminars on Islam-in-Europe during past years. On two days
last November, an international workshop on Islam and
Citizenship in Europe was held in Bologna, coordinated by Dr
Ruba Salih, well-known for her research on Moroccan immigrants
in Italy and on multiculturalism and gender.
Our meetings took place in the Dipartimento di Politica,
Istituzioni, Storia. The scholarly exchanges were made a success
by the active participation of several faculty members, including
Professors Tiziano Bonazzi, Gustavo Gozzi, and Pier Cesare Bori,
other scholars and more than 200
young scholars and students.
After opening speeches by
representatives of the university
and Europaeum, including Secretary General Dr Paul Flather, Dr
Salih introduced the aims of the workshop: immigration of
considerable groups of Muslims has challenged, in many
European countries received ideas about citizenship, and
established dichotomies between the private and public, and
religious and secular spheres. It is clear that nation states cannot
continue to pursue an exclusionary policy. Yet multiculturalism
Muslim dress: dividing Europe
The presence of Muslims prompts Europeans to
rethink their “natural” ideas about citizenship
seems to destabilize many classical categories of “modernity”
and demands new ways of thinking and policy-making.
In the first session two senior scholars of international
renown, Professor Tariq Modood (Bristol) and Professor Nilüfer
Göle (Paris), offered ideas for such a new conceptual framework.
Professor Modood scrutinized the notion of equality in his plea
to go beyond tolerance and secularism. Equal respect meant,
for him, actively accepting and respecting differences of people
within a multicultural society. It also leads to the questioning of
the idea that religion should remain a private phenomenon. He
called for a pragmatic, non-ideological approach, in which
conflicts were negotiated. Islam could thus be integrated into
the institutional framework of the state.
Professor Göle started with a detailed analysis of the mock
veiling of three young women,
whom she had seen that very
morning at Bologna airport. The
presence of Muslims prompts
Europeans the rethink their “natural” ideas about citizenship.
She took the headscarf issue as a way of analyzing an emerging
transnational vocabulary of what it means to be a Muslim in
Europe. Public space is becoming transnational, she agreed, as
the Danish cartoons’ affair also demonstrated. In current debates
about citizenship in Europe, much centered around the body,
space, and memory. Thus, the current debate about Muslims is
also a debate about Europe, democracy, and indeed, modernity
itself. A lively discussion ensued.
The next two papers focused more on the national than on
the European level. Professor Chantal Saint Blancat at Padua
University portrayed the relatively recent formation of Muslim
communities in Italy. She focused on the multiple ways in which
Muslim immigrants developed ties at the local level. Especially
illuminating, and entertaining, was her ethnography of the
owners of kebab restaurants, who had managed to carve out a
place for themselves in Padua – where it was much more the
quality of the food than their religion which mattered. Her analysis
also showed the importance of economic aspects in the debates
about citizenship and identity.
Next, current debates about Islam and citizenship in the
Netherlands was discussed by Professor Buskens. For Dutch
opinion makers, the main issues were women, criminality, and a
renewed interest in national history. Even leading intellectuals
could hardly think outside an established alterity discourse,
dominated by stereotypes. Gradually the key notions in the
debate had changed from ethnicity and culture to Islam. The
Dutch case was seen as part of a much larger, international
debate, but also showed some national particulars. Only sound
empirical research might change the aggressive misconceptions
which currently dominated the public sphere. The day was
concluded by a fine summary of the main points by Professor
Gozzi, and an animated debate, in which many students also
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Report
citizens of Europe
took an active part.
Our second day began with three illuminating case studies
by young researchers, who offered fascinating ethnographic
case material to supplement the theoretical and national analyses
of the first day. Dr Laura Mijares of the Universidad Complutense
de Madrid, presented her research on Muslims in Spanish
secondary schools. Again, the veil turned out to be an important
symbol. Some authorities understood the veil as an obstacle to
“integration”, and denied those girls wearing it access to schools.
Here, a so-called “secularist” discourse of women’s rights was
used to oppose the young women’s understandings of their
own religious identities.
Julia Hieber, at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, offered a micro
analysis of the ways in which mainly Turkish immigrants in
Munich were constructing their new identities through all kinds
of local organizations. Their views of Islam very closely tied to
specific characteristics of time and place. Thus, on the local
level, the idea of the umma, the universal community of Muslims,
was not a lived reality. Internal differences proved to be more
important as organizational principles. Julia Hieber evaluated
the activities of the Muslim youth associations as highly positive
contributions to integration and social coherence. Indeed, it
was argued that the Munich experiences could be a stimulating
example for other European cities.
Dr Annalisa Frisina dealt with a similar theme in the Italian
context. An association of Young Italian Muslims actively tried
to counter Islamophobic tendencies which had emerged in Italy
after 9/11. These young people went beyond defensive ideas
about Islam, by focusing on the notion of citizenship itself.
Thus, the debate also became a mirror for Italians, and an
invitation to rethink allegedly “normal” categories, linked to
nationalism and Catholicism.
As such, Dr Frisina’s case
study invited a return to the
theoretical debates initiated
and by Professors Modood
and Göle.
Finally, the anthropologist Dr Ahmed Al-Shahi from St.
Anthony’s College, Oxford presented some challenging
thoughts on culture, integration, and citizenship. He referred to
many examples from his personal experience, both as a researcher
and teacher, and as an adviser to policy makers. He pronounced
himself strongly against “a ghetto mentality” and isolationism,
and challenged many of the earlier expressed views. He
particularly turned against the political use which some
immigrants made of Islam.
The ensuing debate was ably moderated by Professor Cesare
Bori. In passing he contributed one of the most important and
practical lessons to the workshop, when he mentioned his efforts
to translate important philosophical and mystical texts from the
Arabic, in collaboration with Muslim prisoners.
Muslims in the Netherlands: seeking full citizenship
...by focusing on the notion of citizenship itself...the
debate also became a mirror for Italians, and an
invitation to rethink allegedly “normal” categories
The debates had been so lively that there was little time for
conclusions. However, Dr Flather undertook a courageous
attempt to sum up the main themes and issues. First, he pointed
to the link between the debates about Islam and the crisis in
European citizenship. To what extent were the particular national
debates specific expressions of this more general concern
Second, could we discern any patterns in the national experiences
of the different European countries The case studies presented
offered valuable material for this kind of research. Muslims
constituted, in practice, highly varied communities, although
many Europeans had constructed a uniform image which was at
odds with this diversity. The way in which various European
countries deal with the idea of secularism proved also to be
very diverse, embedded in different historical trajectories.
Dr Flather concluded with a plea for more comparative
research, both on common themes such as veiling, youth
associations, and the media, and on national policies. For
example, European countries could learn much form each other
on the ways they were dealing with legal issues, as well as
questions of representation.
The ‘oldest’ European
university proved to be an
excellent venue for this
learning of each other through
comparison. The bringing
together of researchers from various European countries,
holding differing points of view, lead to fruitful debates and
exchanges.
Italy had relatively recently been confronted with the
immigration of considerable groups of Muslims and scholars
and students showed great curiosity and openness. This new
look on problems which are for North/West Europe riven with
conflict and difficulties was fresh and stimulating.
Thanks to the generosity and savoir vivre of our Bolognese
hosts, and the stunning setting of a Medieval city, scholarship
turned out to be not only an intellectual, but also a sensuous
pleasure.
Léon Buskens is a lecturer in Islamic Law and the Anthropology of Muslim
societies at Leiden University, and a professor at Utrecht University.
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