Europe Taking Wrong Route to Integrate Muslim Population

By: Alaa Bayoumi

Seattle Post Intelligencer, WA , 3/10/2004.

News coming from Europe over the past few weeks shows a rising trendwithin several European countries to seek the assimilation of theirMuslim inhabitants through new laws forcing Muslim females to giveup their Islamic attire in public schools, sending Muslim refugees back home and limiting the number of new Muslim clerics.

A closer look at Europe's current economic and ideological circumstances and at the consequences of these latest regulations shows that Europe is taking the wrong route to integrate its Muslimpopulations.

On Feb. 17, Danish Prime Minister Anders Rasmussen announced various changes to immigration policies aimed at curbing the number ofMuslim religious leaders allowed into Denmark. The proposed changes,which parliament is expected to pass into law rapidly, are part of adeal reached last September between Denmark's Liberal-Conservativegovernment and its far-right ally, the Danish People's Party(DPP). "In theory, these rules concern all clerics from allreligions. But in practice, they target the imams," DPP spokesman Peter Skaarup told journalists in September.

On the same day, the Dutch Lower House voted to expel up to 26,000 failed asylum-seekers over the next three years. Many have been inthe asylum process for years, and include Somalis, Afghans, Chechens and stateless people.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch described the move as a violation of international standards that "signal a serious departure from the Netherlands' historic roleas a leader in human rights' protection in Europe ... (because) ...sending people back to places where they could be in danger not onlyjeopardizes their safety, it is illegal."

On Feb. 10, in France, home to Europe's largest Muslim population (4million to 5 million), the National Assembly approved an internationally controversial ban on headscarves worn by Muslim women, known as the hijab, from public schools. The new legislation, which then passed the French Senate, bans other religious symbols, including large Christian crosses and Jewish skullcaps. "But no onehere (in France) pretends the target is anything other than thehijab in a Europe showing growing discomfort over its burgeoningMuslim population," said The Boston Globe.

Politicians in Belgiumand Germany are debating similar headscarf bans.

The new regulations unjustly infringe on the civil rights of millions of law-abiding Muslim immigrants by: forcing Muslim women and girls to choose between their religiously mandated attire and available public educational opportunities; sending Muslim refugees to countries where their lives may be endangered and limiting Muslims access to religious leaders and education.

They also disregard historical and contemporary Muslim contributionsto the advancement of Europe. During the colonial area, the Islamic world provided major springs of cheap labor and natural resources necessary for the advancement of industrial Europe. After World WarII, France and Britain turned toward their former Muslim colonies in North Africa and South Asia to seek a badly needed work force tohelp their economic recovery while the Germans sought the help ofthe Turks, their former allies.

Today, more than 15 million Muslims are integral to Europe. Some ofthem are highly educated immigrants and converts. While many areunderprivileged workers who help fill blue-collar jobs, have little political access, if any, and face frequent discrimination, especially in the post-9/11 era. In Britain, where 1.6 million Muslims live, a London-based Islamic human rights group reported 344 incidents of anti-Muslim violence against Muslims in the year afterSept. 11, including the stabbing of a Muslim woman.

Instead of confronting the post-Sept.11 anti-Muslim phobia, these new laws will scapegoat Muslims for the real problems dwindlingEurope's ability to build on its traditions of multiculturalism andtolerance; its need for economic and political reform; and the riseof the extreme right. In Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Norwayand Portugal, center and extreme right-wing parties recently havegained great ground.

Europe's difficult political and economicintegration, the worldwide economic recession and the inefficiencyof several European leftist governments, are all possible causes forthe rise of the European right. But what is certain is that Europe'sextreme right-wingers are prospering by amplifying Europeans'economic and cultural fears, especially toward their Muslim immigrant neighbors.

Europe's proposed anti-Muslim laws will create a false solution forserious problems impeding Europe's multiculturalism. This will hinder Muslim integration into European society, as well as damage Europe's image in the Muslim world.

Instead, European countriesshould seek creative approaches to fully engage their Muslim communities in the struggle for economic reform and ideological moderation.

Alaa Bayoumi is a researcher at the Council on American-IslamicRelations, the United States' largest Muslim civil-libertiesadvocacy group.