by Claude Debbichi

Demographic reality

Muslims in the European Union count for around 12 to 13 million inhabitants out of a total population of 377 million. This gives an average of 4% of the population, mainly in the large cities. According to recent estimates, France has the largest number of Muslims on its territory (4.5 to 5 million), followed by Germany (more than 3 million), the United Kingdom (1.4 to 2 million), the Netherlands (696,000) and Italy (600,000). Other countries have between 370,000 (Belgium) and 7,000 (Ireland). With the exception of Greece, where an Islamic minority has been established for centuries, and Austria, where the Islamic community has had a special status recognised by the state since the early 20th century, their arrival is the result of recent immigration that began in the 1950s and 1960s (sparked by decolonisation and the organised immigration of workers to more prosperous western countries). In recent decades, wars and their attendant waves of refugees, clandestine immigration and family reunification have prompted other Muslims, in smaller numbers, to settle in many European countries. However, we have to look mainly at the second and third generations, who were born in these countries and have increasingly acquired the nationality of their country of residence, in order to understand Islam in Europe.

Recognition process

During the first ten to fifteen years of immigration by Muslims, Islam was generally organised in a discreet way. This is not to say that it was clandestine: religious freedom was guaranteed by every European Union member state. However, because it had little or no public exposure, recognition of the freedom to practise their religion openly was neither a priority for Muslims nor easy to implement. Indeed, the body of law of each state is always shaped by its particular history, in this case particularly by the way in which Church-State relations were negotiated in the past. Law were therefore adapted neither to certain requirements of the Islamic religion (such as the ritual slaughtering of cattle or burial rites) nor, more broadly, to a religion with no hierarchical organisation, no church and no clergy.

It was in the 1970s that the first attempts to organise Islam began in Europe, at a different pace and by different means in each country. Between 1975 and 1985, more than 2,000 mosques opened their doors. At the same time Islam began to become institutionalised. This was essential to gain better recognition by states and to draw attention to issues such as the creation of Islamic sections of cemeteries, setting up Islamic religious courses in schools, the recruitment of Islamic chaplains in the army, hospitals, prisons, and so on. However, the difficulty of organising believers with a wide variety of religious traditions and sensitivities (different forms of Islam from Turkey, Pakistan, North and Sub-Saharan Africa, for example), within a common representative body, as well as internal struggles for influence and the reticence of states to deal with problems that were largely alien to them, held back this movement for many years.

Certain European countries have now recognised Islamic representative bodies. In other countries, the painful birth of such bodies is taking place. There are therefore some grounds for hope that the practical problems related to the practice of religion will soon be resolved. This should also lead to the more transparent financing of mosques in future. Mosques have remained up until now a challenge, as much political as religious, both for the countries of origin and for wealthy donors such as Saudi Arabia.

The question of limits

Openness to Islamic religious practices poses no fundamental problem for our societies. A more thorny issue is that of placing limits on religious practices. Does this also cover social relations, including family rights? Should a specific personal status be recognised for Muslims, and if so, on what basis? This controversial debate, on which Muslims themselves are far from unanimous, should be addressed in a coherent manner at European level because it affects us all in the long term.

Towards a European Islam

The existence of Islamic institutions in European countries, elected by European Muslims who, with the changing generations, are moving away from the “ethnic” Islam of the first generation, should give rise to a more integrated form of Islam. Although there is growing interest in the religious dimension, many within the younger generations are trying to reconcile this with belonging to European societies. If these efforts are taken seriously by the member states, by other citizens and by the Islamic population itself, they could be a powerful factor for integration.

So what should we make of the attacks in the United States? According to Joseph Maïla, Director of the Peace Research Centre at the Institut Catholique de Paris , in an article in Le Monde (4 October 2001), these attacks are the work of groups, networks and individuals from which the great majority of Muslims distance themselves, including (and this should be underlined) many of those whom we call Islamist. However, as long as the attack against the United States remains confined, “we have to combat it at this level. Generalising the response or construing it as a response to a universal threat means transforming a specific challenge into a universal war.” For Muslims (but by no means only Muslims), the failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the continuing embargo against Iraq are sources of resentment that damage their confidence in the sincerity of western discourse and the coherence of our values. A disproportionate and prolonged attack against Afghanistan, coupled with even the vague possibility of using the fight against terrorism for other purposes, or an obsession that everything Islamic is dangerous, whatever its nature or purpose, could have dramatic consequences on our relations with the Islamic population in Europe.

Europe Infos No 32 (abridged)

[Europe Infos is a monthly publication by COMECE and OCIPE in English, French, German, Polish and Spanish. Subscriptions: europeinfos@comece.org . For other information consult http://www.comece.org and http://www.ocipe.org ].