Muslims in Europe - Official Efforts to Exclude Muslims as Others from the States of Europe - Essay Example

? Muslims in Europe: Official efforts to exclude Muslims as “others” from the s of Europe May 8, Outline: Introduction………………………………………………………………………………. 3 Syncretism…………………………………………………………………………………4 Immigration of Muslims within Europe………………………………………………….. 4 France…………………………………………………………………………….. 4 Great Britain……………………………………………………………………… 5 Germany………………………………………………………………………….. 5 Muslim communities of the 20th/21st centuries based on three typologies……………… 6 Multiculturalism…………………………….…………………………………….. 6 Differential exclusion / guest worker system……………………………………… 7 Assimilation……………………………………………………………………….. 8 Terrorism as usually associated with Muslim people……………………………………… 8 Social exclusion……………………………………………………………………………. 10 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………. 13 Introduction Islam is the religion for more than 2 billion people on the earth. Only in Western Europe there are about 10 million Muslims, who are considered to be the largest religious minority in the region and the third largest religion overall growing much faster than traditionally dominant Catholic and Protestant religions. As a result, Islam became a significant religious and social force in the Western European countries, including France, Germany, United Kingdom, and others. In Great Britain, for example, Muslims are the second largest faith group after Christians. More than half of them were born in the United Kingdom having such ethnic backgrounds as Turkish, Arab, Indian, Asian, Kurdish, and Pakistani. Muslims coming to live in France are usually from francophone countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco (Castles and Miller, 2003). Finally, Germany has many Muslims with Turkish and Kurdish origin. Since the number of Muslims living in Western Europe and the United States continue to grow and more and more people become converted into Islam religion, anti-Muslim sentiments and movements started growing across Europe when Muslims have become the main focus of official efforts to exclude them as “others” from the states of Europe. The main reason for such actions is the fear of a ‘Muslim invasion’ when European national identities can be threatened by the ongoing processes of European integration and immigration from the developing countries (Ferrera, 2005). While in the past immigration rules were less restricted for certain countries, they became tougher recently due to the increased number of immigrants living on the unemployment compensation from the government, which raises concerns and complaints from the citizens who work hard and pay taxes. Even if immigrants find a job, the employers pay much less salaries and wages for them than for national citizens. So, it shifts preferences for employment toward immigrants. In such a way, socially excluded “national” citizens compete with socially excluded ethnic minorities or immigrant ‘others’ for limited national resources of welfare (Castles and Miller, 2003). Such current situation in the Western European countries can be associated with a “social regression” or a “social crisis” in addition to a growing political and cultural crisis based on the established national identities. In such a way, recently there is a strong tendency to exclude Muslim immigrant “others” out of the European countries to make it “nationally pure” again. Syncretism Syncretism, which means "combining", is the attempt to reconcile contrary beliefs or several originally discrete traditions, often while melding practices of various schools of thought in theology or religion (Navarro, 2010). Some scholars believe that Islam is a syncretic religion combined from other religions like Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism. However, Muslims themselves do not regard their religion as syncretism, as they see Islam as a completion of divine revelations from previous prophets and consider Islam as continuation of Judaism and Christianity. Immigration of Muslims within Europe France The most significant areas of origin of immigration of Muslims within Europe are North Africa and Turkey. Among all European countries France has the oldest relation with Muslims and Islam as a result of various Muslim invasions in the Middle Ages and the early Modern Period. In 1830 France conquered Algeria, which allowed the country to get the first several Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan African colonies with large Muslim populations (Lewis, 1982). Though, only during World War I the first large migrations to France began. Due to labor shortages after World War II the immigration processes of Muslims continued. That generation of “temporary immigrants” during the 1960s and 70s did not express their religious beliefs and practice religious traditions openly (Lewis, 1982). Those who decided to stay brought their families to France to settle down and integrate into the French community and social life. Traditionally, France was a predominantly Catholic Christian country and did not expect at the beginning that influence of immigrants, mainly of Muslim origin, can increase so much that it can cause a “social crisis in their country many years later. Today there are approximately 5 million Muslim men and women of Arab origin in France. Great Britain Starting from the 19th century Muslims began to settle in Great Britain when they were recruited as foreign cheap labor workers at the growing industrial and seaport cities of England. British colonialism caused the first large wave of Muslim immigrants arriving in the UK after the war (Fetzer and Soper, 2005). While the British government did not encourage foreign workers to become British citizens, the past policies still allowed this to happen for those willing to get the British citizenship. However, after a while the access to citizenship rights became more restricted. Germany Same as France, Germany has a long history of interactions with Muslims starting from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when Muslims were living in Germany also on the temporary basis. Two centuries later in 1925 the first mosque was constructed in Berlin (Fetzer and Soper, 2005). Again, due to labor shortages Germany agreed to make deals with other countries to bring foreign labor force and help Germany fight in the war as a short term solution. At that moment, Turkish workers were the largest immigrant population in the country (Preuss, 2003). Starting from the nineteenth century Germany began to consider immigration opportunities for foreigners with two main approaches, including “assimilation” and “differential exclusion” (Lewis, 1982). Only recently a multicultural approach became used toward the immigrant “others”. However, today due to high level of unemployment in Germany many immigrants stay at home without work and get unemployment compensation from the government. This fact, for sure, is of high concerns for the German citizens, who work hard to earn enough money to pay high taxes. That is why, Germany as well as France and UK decided to apply certain changes to their immigration and citizenship laws. Muslim communities of the 20th/21st centuries based on three typologies During the 20th and 21st centuries the Muslim communities in the Western Europe and United States experienced tremendous changes in their size, structure, and requirements from the “host” country (Castles and Miller, 2003). These communities can be divided into three categories based on the their purposes and ways of interaction, including community space for prayers and religious meetings, normative values of Muslim family rights and their human and citizen rights, and finally education as the way to strengthen their national identity and increase opportunities to stay in the country on long-term conditions having the same rights as “national” citizens. Once small minority groups, Muslim communities today grow year after year, same as the influence of Islam around the world bringing the issues of religious, cultural and social rights of Muslims living in Western Europe on the surface. According to Castles and Miller (2003), immigration countries can be divided into three typologies/approaches to immigration based on the historical citizenship traditions, including multiculturalism, differential exclusion/guest worker system, and assimilation. Multiculturalism The multicultural model can be applied to Great Britain when immigrants are to be granted equal rights in all society areas without losing diversity and their national identity. Laissez-faire approach to the multicultural model accepts cultural differences and existence of ethnic communities, but denies the responsibility of the state to ensure social justice and support of ethnic cultures. On the contrary to Germany and France, multiculturalism is rooted in the British society as London has become the centre of an Islamic financial industry. British Muslims are present in the parliament. There are many Muslim newspapers and magazines in the country. There is no discrimination against Muslims in UK whether on the working places, universities or schools. Fights for antidiscrimination legislation were significant in forming multiculturalism in Great Britain as an institutionalized government policy with “anti-racism” roots. Differential exclusion / guest worker system The second model of differential exclusion can be applied to Germany with regime of “guest worker” temporary recruiting policies. The German government does not provide the granted secure residence status for the foreign workers coming to the country as “guest workers”, which today can usually happen through Au-Pair program when young people come to Germany either to take care about the children in the family or about elderly people. Other programs also exist. Such temporary immigrants do not have access to full participation in social, cultural and political relations. Some ethnic communities are rather tight helping each other in all aspects of life while other communities like Turks are not held together as “a community by common values and goals”, but rather the feeling of ethnicity is based on common origins and the experience. Though, the number of mosques and Islamic prayer rooms continuously grows in Germany and the influence of Islam spreading across the country by converting Germans and other foreigners into Islam. Assimilation Finally, France is more associated with the assimilation model, under which immigrants are incorporated into society through a process of “one-way” adaptation. The main point of such model is that the “host” country and its citizens expect that immigrants will surrender their distinctive cultural, social and linguistic characteristics being influenced by the dominant culture. In such a way, cultural integration of immigrants will occur within the French community and at the end immigrants will become “new” French citizens with similar beliefs and traditions (Fetzer and Soper, 2005). At the beginning French government tried to convince immigrants from North Africa to return back home by offering them the financial inducements. However, such strategy failed and led to even larger immigration groups flooding into the country. As a result, today France is considered as one of the most multi-ethnic societies on the continent (Castles and Miller, 2003). As it was mentioned earlier in the paper, France became the main target of immigration from such francophone countries as Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria, where Muslim religion prevails and French language is official first or second language (Fetzer and Soper, 2005). The assimilation model applied by the French government eventually failed because Muslim communities and groups in France are organizationally unified and more politically mobilized than those Muslims in Great Britain or Germany. Despite this, it is still rather difficult for Muslims in France to get certain benefits from the state to reflect their cultural diversity. Terrorism as usually associated with Muslim people It is largely believed that the main goal of the terrorism is to produce a change in the governments’ political position toward certain issues. The events of 9/11 caused the reconsideration of global factors responsible for transnational terrorism. Recently terrorism of new form and characteristics occurred with its different actors, motivations, goals, tactics, strategies, actions and consequences (Lizardo and Bergesen, 2006). While analyzing the new terrorism form and its targets, it becomes obvious that the new terrorist activities present more danger, destruction and negative long-term effects toward the core governments, their civilians and core institutions. Starting from 2001 all the countries, especially the United States and Europe, paid special attention to the issue of international terrorism identifying it as the “war on terrorism”. As Lizardo and Bergesen (2006) wrote, the Bush Administration had used war rhetoric in order to give itself the endless and extraordinary powers of a wartime government to detain and even kill suspects without any trial. Despite such security initiatives might help to fight against terrorism, they can also threaten the essential liberty of people and their rights. In such a way, the administration permitted itself to do things, which might be restricted or forbidden during the peace time since they are bound by strict rules of law enforcement. When the government of the United States proclaimed global war on terrorism, it gave itself a freedom to do whatever it considers right to fight against terrorism, even if those actions might be immoral, unethical and inhuman. The events of 9/11 became the beginning of numerous military, political, social and discriminatory actions against Muslims, who are usually associated with terrorism based on incidents and crimes made by the Islamic extremists. From 2001 Muslims can no longer feel safe abroad while living inside international communities in Europe and especially United States (Lizardo and Bergesen, 2006). The whole nations cannot be responsible for the actions of several people, but the mass media turned it back against Muslims and caused horrible persecutions of Muslims in majority of European countries and US. They became the main suspects in any crime or police investigation. Muslims were stopped on the street to check identities, bags for explosives and houses for terrorism activities. Religious discrimination against Muslims of any origin spread across the world. Because of numerous Islamic extremist groups around the world Islam has wrongly been perceived as the religion of war, when all Muslims are willing and ready to explode themselves on behalf of Allah. These are just stereotypes based on mass media propaganda and official efforts from various governments against increasing influence of Muslim communities. Social Exclusion In many cases while living in the Western European countries Muslims and other minority groups feel lost “between cultures” when they fight to keep their national identity and at the same time try to adapt to the society of the country they live in. In such a way, Muslim immigrants experience difficulties with personal and ethnic identity in addition to self-realization. Moreover, it is often difficult to stay in the middle: either young Muslim people become Europeanized and neglect their ethnic origin or they are proud of being Muslims, but in this case experience peer pressure and ethnic discrimination. Usually immigrant “others” experience such problems as language barrier, differences in values, religious conflicts, sex role expectations, economic adjustments, political issues and legal complications. European countries should understand that racial and ethnic diversity is very important in both the educational institutions and work places because by learning peculiarities of each other’s culture, languages and traditions people from different ethnic groups can learn to respect and understand each other. This will help to improve the perception of Muslim people as European citizens with the same rights as “national” Europeans have. Other concerns of immigrants are the low quality areas they live in and low level of education in the schools they can afford (Morris, 2002). There is an urgent necessity to disrupt and redirect the current educational trajectory for immigrant students in order to improve their academic performance and increase number of graduates with high levels of academic achievement. Perhaps, one of the main reasons for poor educational performance of immigrant students is that majority of them studies at racially segregated schools, which apparently inferior educational institutions. The racial discrimination and stereotypes against immigrant students and mainly against Muslims as potential criminals and terrorists often took place, which led to high number of immigrant students being assigned for special education and some abusing educational procedures. Though, schools should be managed by effective and professional principals with strong leadership skills who can overcome educational challenges and problems, especially in schools with students from poor families and minority groups. Effective academic leader can make a lot of positive changes within the school practice and management, which in its turn improve the academic results of students. In some cases immigrant “others” experience social exclusion. According to the European Union’s Poverty Program, “social exclusion” means “the negation of citizenship” of the right and actual ability to participate as “full member of the community” (Preuss, 2003). However, the current competitive pressures in the global economy has accentuated existing inequalities and created new ones in relation to labor markets across the world. For many years, Muslims and immigrant “others” living in the Western European countries have been disproportionately among the lowest-paid, unemployed and underemployed. The social exclusion can include legal actions such as the denial of civil rights and institutionalized discrimination. For example, during the period from 1960s to 1970s Muslim young people living in France experienced discrimination in labor recruitment (Roy, 2004). Muslim females especially felt such discrimination because being veiled they were refused from being employed by various companies. As a result, France often faces with different types of protests organized either by young Muslim immigrants or even young French people defending their civil rights. Moreover, when such employment discrimination happens, many immigrants are forced to agree to lower paid work just to support their families and cover at least minimum life needs. With such restrictions in education and employment, immigrants are not able to move upwards. Individual integration into French, German or British community is fairly easy for those skilled immigrants, who are not subjected to processes of segmented labor markets and residential segregation (Lewis, 1982). However, immigrants with poor skills are most disadvantaged experiencing the worst possible discrimination and social exclusion. That is why, to survive immigrants tend to organize in cultural and social groups in order to help and protect each other. In addition, such unions help to preserve their language and traditions. Though, “locals” often perceive such unions as “racialization”, which only increases their fears toward the “immigrant invasion”. For example, Islam religion requires all women wearing the hijab (scarf, veil), though in European schools and working places it became highly politicized starting from 2003. A year later wearing hijab became outlawed in French state schools (Roy, 2004). In its turn, seven states of Germany banned headscarf in schools while overall sixteen federal states forbidden it in public buildings and on state job positions. Moreover, many French Muslim girls reported that they were denied employment because of wearing the headscarf. The situation in Britain is quite similar in terms of forbidding any expression of political or religious symbols and beliefs by immigrant “others”. Though, the question arises why then European Christians or Catholics are not forbidden of wearing a cross or other religious symbols? Why their behavior never cause concerns and fears? Only because they are the majority? Conclusion Ethno-cultural diversity, along with persistent practices of differentiation and racialization continues to grow in the western European countries. Is it still under debate whether European politicians are looking to protect their citizens or searching scapegoats for social problems and pretexts to legislate in the “war on terror”. There is no single solution for the current situation of social crisis in the Western European countries toward Muslim immigrants. Perhaps, it is necessary to change the immigration regulations or change the international rules of trade promoted by the World Bank, allowing underdeveloped countries equal access to western markets (Morris, 2002). What is definitely clear is that immigration to the developed countries will not stop due to globalization, international employment and communication. That is why, instead of discriminating Muslim immigrants and create mass media stories against them the governments of the Western European countries have to reconsider the immigration regulations to balance all ethnic groups within the society in order to reach healthy cultural and social relations between them for the benefits of the whole community. References: Castles S. and Miller M.J. (2003). The Age of Migration. 3rd ed., Basingstoke, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan. Ferrera, M. (2005). The Boundaries of Welfare European Integration and the New Spatial Politics of Social Protection. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Fetzer, J. S. and Soper, J. C. (2005). Muslims and the State in Britain, France, and Germany. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Lewis, B. (1982). The Muslim Discovery of Europe. McLeod, New York. Lizardo, O. A. and Bergesen, A. J. (2006). Types of Terrorism by World System Location. Department of Sociology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. Morris, L. (2002). Managing Migration. London and New York, Routledge. Navarro, T. (2010). From Syncretism to Arabization: the Changing Face of Islam in Southeast Asia. Research Program Seminar on Politics. April 28. Preuss, U.K. (2003). Citizenship and the “Germanation”. Citizenship Studies, Vol. 7(1), pp.: 37-55. Roy, O. (2004). Globalized Islam - The Search for a New Ummah. New York, Columbia University Press. Read More