Symposium on Muslims in Europe The Institute for Comparative Social Research and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany Rajab 3-5; 1412/ February 6-8, 1992

Abstract

The question of a Muslim minority in the Western context has become an
important one in view of some h-and-hysteria literatu~th at continues to depict
this minority as a threat to Western liberal values and sociopolitical systems.
The conference papers were structured around a basic theme of “Muslims, Islam,
and Diaspora,” which reveals the difficulty of European scholars as well as
government officials in accurately conceptualizing the Muslim experience of
immigration in the West.
To be sure, there is no concept of an eschatological ”promised land” or “holy
land” in the Qur’an to suggest “diaspora” - the dispersion of its adherents from
it - even in the remotest sense of the term. The entire earth, according to the
Qur’an, belongs to God and has been created for humanity to seek its own
advancement towards the moral and spiritual goals wherever it so chooses, as
long as no injustices are committed against fellow humans beings. The concept
of dZir al hijrah, on the other hand, captures the spirit of Muslim emigration
to the West. It is a journey undertaken to overcome spiritual and moral
“homelessness,” a physical transferral to the sphere which holds out the promise
of deviatiog the unfavorable conditions prevalent in one’s awn place of domicile.
To this early meaning of emigration (hijrah) of a person from a particular place
or set of surroundings to seek protection is added emigration for the sake of
economic advantage, either temporanly or permanently, somewhere else. In other
words, for Muslims this sphere of emigration is not what Europe wants to
perceive, namely, a “diaspora” that would make them endeavor to return from
the “diaspora” to their “holy land” located somewhere in Arabia.
Apart from this lack of conceptual clarity in categorizing the Muslims’
perception of their spatial relationship in the West, European scholars and
administrators are faced with another difficulty. This was discussed by Reinhard
Schulze following his paper on ”International Organization and Muslims in
Europe.” Schulze pointed out the inadequacy with which Europe defines the word
“religion” and then imposes it on Islam, expecting to discover a central Islamic
“church” headed by a Muslim “bishop” with whom the government can establish
administrative relations. Even more difficult for homogenous European nations
like France, where the majority is Catholic, is to recognize the existence of other
“religions“ besides Christianity for administrative purposes. This difficulty is
self-created, because such recognition entails empowering the followers of other ...