Why is europe being islamized

The resulting matrix of these four dimensions will be applied to several of the main issues of the interaction between Islam and Europe: the numerical presence of Muslims, their visibility, the legacy of centuries of European-Islamic interaction, and the in compatibility of Islamic and European values. See, e. Hunter ed. Westport: Praeger Publishers, , pp. Katzenstein eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, , pp. The United Kingdom is the first and so-far only country that has specifically criminalised female genital mutilation Female Circumcision Act of , expanded and changed into the Female Genital Mutilation Act of Stefano Allievi , Conflicts over Mosques in Europe.

Policy issues and trends London : Alliance Publishing Trust , , pp. Why a solution has become a problem , Stefano Allievi ed. London: Alliance Publishing Trust, , pp. William E. Talal Asad , Formations of the Secular , Maurits S. Facts, fears and figures , Maurits S. Berger ed. Leiden: Leiden University Press, , pp. Brown ed. Leiden: Leiden University, , pp. Reference Works. Primary source collections. Open Access Content. Contact us. Sales contacts. Publishing contacts. Social Media Overview.

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Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Ahmed : In each European country the relationship of the Muslim minority to the host country is different and depends on the historical relationship with their country of origin and the circumstances of their arrival.

The third generation of Muslim immigrants born as citizens in the U. At the same time we must not overlook the fact that Muslims are also contributing to Western societies in significant ways—[as] the mayors of London and Rotterdam, [as] more than a dozen members of the House of Lords and Commons, [as] members of parliament in places like Germany and France, [as] major television presenters, and [as] sports heroes in cricket and football. Frum : European Muslim communities seem to assimilate at different rates and in different ways.

Whether they are fully accepted as French is a separate question, and I have explored it in detail in the book. As far as the British colonies were concerned, in India for example, after the uprisings that almost toppled British rule on the subcontinent, the British consciously left religion alone.

Besides, there was a distinctly different approach to imperialism between the British and the French—after the former tended to be more inclusive and promoted schools, colleges, and participation in the army and civil services, while the French ruled their African colonies through harsh military force and compelled their subjects to give up their Islamic identity. Ahmed : To understand modernist Islam we need to disentangle the three categories from each other.

Modernist Islam by definition cannot promote violence, because it is based in democracy and the rule of law. Literalist Islam, which sets out to be the champion of Islam and draw boundaries around the faith, can sometimes act as a catalyst for violent groups. These groups may well use modern technology such as the internet, and therefore are wrongly assumed to be purveyors of modernist thinking. It is the failure of the modernist category to provide democracy, accountability, and human and civil rights that creates a backlash against modernity and gives space for the emergence of the Taliban, ISIS, and so on.

Baghdadi dominated ISIS with a demented brutality just as Saddam did ruling Iraq—just as the former failed to live up to any ideal of Islam, the latter failed to represent modernist Islam. In Pakistan today, we see the irony of militant groups inflicting violence on all sections of society including school children, law and government offices, and patients in hospitals in the nation created by [Ali] Jinnah, the quintessential modernist, lawyer, and constitutionalist.

Frum : As much as you emphasize the potential for harmony, you conclude Journey into Europe with nightmare visions of possible conflict. Which vision seems to you more likely to be realized? Is there a gap between your intellect and your emotions in your anticipations of the future?

Ahmed : After several years of research in the field, my team and I concluded that Europe stands at the crossroads. If its leaders rediscover its pluralist and humanist traditions and adapt them to the 21st century, Europe can once again be a beacon of civilization to the world.

Anti-Muslim views have become more widespread in Europe over the past 30 years, but it is important to distinguish between criticisms of certain forms of Islamic practice and the belief that Muslims are taking over Europe. People with anti-Islamic views wish to restrict Muslim immigration and Islamic religious practices. In their view, Islam is a homogenous, totalitarian ideology that is threatening western civilisation.

When we talk about anti-Muslim racism, the attitudes concerned are so generalizing that all Muslims are lumped together, regardless of whether they are secular Muslims or fundamentalists.

In other words, we are talking not only about criticism of a set of religious ideas, but about attitudes that dehumanize and generalize a whole group in the population.

In the aftermath of the Cold War, one could say that Europe needed a new archetypal enemy, and research shows that Muslim immigrants gradually took on that status. Research from various countries shows increases in anti-Muslim views towards Muslims in connection with various critical events.

This does not suggest that anti-Muslim bias is growing in a continuously upwards trend. Rather, it suggests that this bias increases temporarily in connection with societal events that direct a critical focus on Muslims. In many cases, their demonstrations were met with highly generalizing and critical representations of Muslim in the media , where Islam as a religion was questioned.

Similar conflicts between freedom of expression and religious tolerance would occur nearly 20 years later, in the aftermath of the caricatures published in the Danish newspaper Jyllandsposten in , as well as in the aftermath of the Islamist attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in The first Gulf War was followed by media debates that also directed a critical focus on Muslims, and research from Australia and United Kingdom shows a rise in anti-Muslim views in that period.

At times, the War on Terror was based on a strongly generalizing rhetoric about Muslims, and a sceptical attitude towards Muslims in general, rather than exclusively towards radicalized communities.

Research has also shown that there have been other events since that time that have led to increased scepticism towards Muslims. This is despite the fact that Muslims have lived in parts of Europe for several hundred years.

The fact that some Muslims are extremists and perpetrate terrorist acts is generalized to encourage an attitude that Islam in general represents a threat. References to terrorist events, or mass attacks, or the increased number of Muslim men in rape statistics, or the oppression of women, or the fundamentalist practice of Sharia law, portray Islam in general as a threat.

Accordingly, anti-Muslim views are in no way a new phenomenon neither in Norway nor globally. Hagen wrote a strongly anti-Islam column in the newspaper Aftenposten.

This letter predicted that one day, mosques would be as common as churches in Norway, Islam would prevail, and Norway would become a Muslim country. Subsequently, the letter turned out to be a fake.