Islam in Europe: a Clash of Tolerances by Dr Maurits Berger

CLINGENDAEL DIPLOMATIC STUDIES PROGRAMME May 2007

Islam in Europe: A clash of tolerances By Dr Maurits Berger

Ladies and gentlemen, In this article I will argue that religious tolerance is the wrong approach when it Is Islam in Europe the arrival of a religion comes to Muslims in Europe. I will do so by that is essentially anathema to the values first explaining the different forms of that Christianity has represented in Europe religious tolerance based on the Christian‐ for centuries? The heated debates in mainly European and Islamic‐Arab experiences. West‐ European countries would make us Then I will discuss the confusion in believe so. But the arguments are often not European contemporary policies on how to well substantiated and emotional. deal with Muslims in Europe, and its resulting ambiguous approaches to religious In terms of religious values, Islam is as close tolerance. to or as far removed from Christianity as Judaism is. Talking of an exclusive ‘Christian‐ Jewish heritage’ unique to Europe is a recent 1. Concepts of religious tolerance: the construct that is perhaps politically correct European and Arabic examples but does not reflect Europe’s long and bleak The treatment of every religious minority is history of malicious treatment of Jews and ultimately related to the concept of religious Judaism. Moreover, one could argue that tolerance. How religious tolerance is shaped Christian Europe and the Islamic Arab world and conceptualized, however, depends on have an equally longstanding albeit the historical, political and social antagonistic common history.1 circumstances of the particular environments that these minorities live in. Is a fruitful and peaceful existence of The experiences of Christian Europe and the 2 Muslims and their religion possible in Islamic Arab world are illustrative examples Europe? Of course it is. The main problem I of how different this concept may work out. foresee is not a clash of religious cultures, but of religious tolerances. As long as Islamic Arab world Muslims in Europe are perceived as a An important social and historical difference religious community, and the debate between the Christian‐European and consequently focuses on a yet to be Islamic‐Arab world was religious developed religious tolerance, Europe’s demographics: Christian rulers in Europe policies vis‐à‐vis Muslims run the ruled over predominantly Christian subjects, considerable risk of missing the intended while Muslims constituted a minority during goal of making Muslims integrated part of the first centuries of their empire. This European societies.

2 With this term I refer to the geographical area from 1 This argument is made persuasively by Richard W. Morocco to Iraq, including the Gulf countries. This Bulliet in The Case for Islamo-Christian used to be, by and large, the territory of the Muslim Civilization, New York: Columbia University Press, Empire of the first centuries of Islam, later to be 2004. incorporated into the Ottoman Empire.

Netherlands Institute for International Relations ‘Clingendael’ 2 Islam in Europe: A clash of tolerances

typical feature of the Islamic empire arose were established independent from the state from the fact that upon their swift conquest courts. of the large area from Morocco to Afghanistan, the Muslims were confronted with large indigenous populations with other Christian Europe religions, mainly Christian and Zoroastrian. In Europe, on the other hand, the religious Different from what Western popular lore demographic situation was entirely different. wants us to believe had the Muslims no The inhabitants of Europe in medieval times intention to convert their non‐Muslims were all Christian. The Christian population subjects. There were several reasons for this of early medieval Europe encountered very reluctance. First, the Quran explicitly few non‐Christians, except perhaps Jews and, prohibits forced conversion. Also, conversion even less so, Muslims. would mean a loss of income for the Muslim rulers since non‐Muslims were obliged to Jews has gradually entered Europe since the pay a poll tax. Muslims only gradually – in 2nd century, to be expulsed from Western some parts even after several centuries ‐ and Middle Europe in the 15th and early 16th became the majority in the Islamic empire, century, and allowed back after 1570 from due to the conversions of non‐Muslims, which period onwards they have more or whereby historians agree that the main less integrated into European society until inducement for non‐Muslims to convert to new waves of anti‐Semitism erupted in the Islam was to avoid this poll tax. 19th century, culminating in pogroms and finally the Holocaust. With the exception of Having resolved not to convert their non‐ Catholic Spain in 1499 and periodic incidents Muslim subjects, the Muslim rulers had to in those times, the Jews in Europe were decide how to deal with them. They did so by generally not forced to convert. However, granting the non‐Muslim communities the their religious freedom and practices were legal status as dhimmis, or ‘protected limited to what the Christians believed to be peoples.’ This meant that non‐Muslims under the correct interpretation of the Old Islamic rule were granted the freedom to Testament, the pope being the ultimate judge continue their religious ways and to have of what constituted correct Jewish doctrine. their lives and goods protected by the state in exchange for their submission to Islamic The other group of non‐Christians in Europe rule, a second‐class citizenship and the was the Muslims. First there were the payment of a poll tax. In practice the Muslims of Spain, who ruled a caliphate for treatment of the dhimmis not always seven centuries until the finalization of the concurred with this legal status, and there reconquista of Muslim Spain in 1492 left were many instances of discrimination and them with the choice between conversion occasional persecution, although this and emigration. Less than a century later, differed from city to city and region to Europe was confronted with conquests by region. Muslim Turks of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. The situation of However, discrimination of non‐Muslims, the Spanish and Turkish Muslims was both legal and in practice often centred on different from the Jews, however, since the their legal and public status and much less Muslims never lived as minority on their religious freedom. The various non‐ communities within Christian Europe. Muslim religious communities were granted unhindered freedom and virtual autonomy Religious tolerance for Christian Europeans in matters of religion. Catholics, Orthodox, as an answer to the question how to Jews, and their many sectarian subdivisions cohabitate with other faiths was therefore appointed their own community leaders and not related to Muslims or Jews. It became an maintained their own religious laws. This important issue only in the twelfth century also included family law for which courts with regard to Christian heretics and

Netherlands Institute for International Relations ‘Clingendael’ 3 Islam in Europe: A clash of tolerances

sectarians. It took several centuries of summarized as the Islamic‐Arab doctrine religious conflict until religious tolerance maintaining a communal approach to was actually being put into practice in order religious tolerance, while the Christian‐ to settle the violent strife between Catholics European approach acquired an individual and Protestants. quality, especially after the Catholic‐ Protestant strife of the sixteenth and Religious tolerance of (non‐Christian) seventeenth centuries. minority communities in Europe became again subject of debate in the 20th century, In Europe, the inter‐Christian conflicts were first with the virulent anti‐Semitism against resolved, not by granting special rights to Jews, later with the large numbers of (mostly particular religious minorities, but by Muslim) immigrants. separating church and state, and granting freedom of religion to individuals rather than to communities. Religious minorities were 2. European and Arabic concepts of protected indirectly, by guaranteeing tolerance individual freedom of worship. Western There is a general consensus in tolerance as we know it now has developed contemporary Western literature on defining from the freedom of religion of the individual tolerance as a deliberate choice not to into the larger concept of liberalism, with its interfere with the conduct of which one strong emphasis on individual freedoms and disapproves. This definition has two aspects. rights. First, tolerance is exercised by someone who has the power to also not tolerate the Religious tolerance in the Islamic‐Arab conduct he disapproves of, but nevertheless world, on the other hand, has maintained its chooses to be tolerant. When certain communal form even after the dhimmi‐status behaviour is tolerated or rights are granted, was abolished in the Ottoman Empire in the tolerator merely indulges himself. 1856, and all subjects of the Ottoman Empire Second, tolerance is exercised in matters were considered citizens equal before the involving firmly held beliefs. It implies that law and the state, regardless of their religion. the tolerator strongly objects to a certain The Christian and Jewish citizens kept their behaviour or opinion, but nevertheless community structures with its autonomous decides to accept it. leadership and family courts. This privileged status has been more or less continued by These characteristics are shared by the most Arab countries today. religious tolerances as described in Islamic and Christian discourse. In the Islamic‐Arab world the dominant Muslim majority had the Pro’s and con’s of the communal approach power not to accept non‐Muslim beliefs, Assuming that the reader is familiar with the which, in cases like consumption of wine and European individual model, let’s pay a closer pork and the belief in Christ as the Son of look at the Islamic‐Arab communal model. God, are indeed abhorrent to a Muslim Its main characteristic is the lack of any believer. But Islamic doctrine nevertheless direct interaction between the state and the agreed to ‘leave them [i.e. the non‐Muslims] individual, for the freedom of religion is and what they believe.’ A similar approach to granted to communities not individuals. The religious tolerance was taken in Christian‐ non‐Muslim communities enjoy protection Europe, albeit more reluctantly and often against religious persecution and the less successful. absence of state meddling in religious affairs, and consequently may even be allowed to Communal and individual approaches manage their own religious and family law However, the practice of religious tolerance affairs. But this protection does not extend to differed considerably between the two the individual members of these worlds. This difference can be briefly communities. In case of religious disputes,

Netherlands Institute for International Relations ‘Clingendael’ 4 Islam in Europe: A clash of tolerances

for instance, the communities may act As said, most Westerners will consider this against renegade or dissenting individual an intolerable restriction to the individual’s members. These have no recourse to the freedom of choice. However, most Arabs state, for religious matters belong to the perceive this communal system not in terms exclusive jurisdiction of the community of freedoms, but as a right, i.e. the right to authorities. Nor will the state interfere when belong to one’s community and to practice the communities amend their family laws in one’s religion. From this perspective, ways that would violate legal tenets of the tolerance could be defined as allowing an state law.3 individual to belong to a community and to have the community’s rules applied, rather The communal approach furthermore than allowing him to choose his own institutionalizes what would nowadays be religious community or even stay without called a multicultural society – but here any religious status. being a multi‐religious society. The recognition of religious minority communities allows these communities to 3. Muslims in Europe: a lack of vision coexist with each other and with the larger and strategy Muslim community while maintaining their Does all this mean that Muslims in Europe differences on essential issues. Christian propagate a communal approach to their rules and values may for instance be minority presence, which is clashing with the incompatible with those of Islam, but each traditional individual approach of Western community can live according to its rules European countries? If only it were that within the confines of its religious‐legal simple. boundaries. What we are presently witnessing is more a There is another characteristic to the reverse situation, with Muslims identifying communal approach that Westerners will themselves indeed as Muslims but not consider reprehensible but which is actually manifesting themselves as a perceived by many Arab Muslims and non‐ cohesive community, while the societies and Muslims as just and advantageous. This is the governments of European countries perceive issue of the individual’s freedom of choice to them as a community and even pressure be part of a religious community. In the them to organize themselves as such. Islamic‐Arab system the religious communities are not voluntary associations. Are we to conclude then that Europe is Membership is pre‐determined by religion. switching from an individual model to a The individual who wants to step out of his communal one? It looks that way, but insofar community has no choice other than to as we can discern a ‘model’ in the ambiguous convert – although he will then become European strategies vis‐à‐vis the Muslims it member of the community of his new is quite different from the one religion. Not belonging to a religious conceptualized in the Islamic‐Arab world. community is in most cases not an option, not even in most modern Arab countries. The main difference is the European top‐ One’s religion determines one’s social, and, down approach. European politics towards definitely, one’s legal identity. Muslims are initiated by governments rather than by the Muslims themselves. Although t is true that Muslims in Europe increasingly attach importance to their Islamic identity, 3 Only in exceptional cases will the state intervene in but so far they have expressed little need to such amendments. See for the case of contemporary act as a community of Muslims. There may Egypt, Maurits S. Berger, 'Public policy and Islamic be a shared Islamic identity, but linguistic, law: the modern dhimmi in contemporary Egyptian ethnic, national and even religious fault lines family law' in: Islamic Law & Society, 2001, (Vol. 8, Nr.1). often run deep. What we see therefore is not

Netherlands Institute for International Relations ‘Clingendael’ 5 Islam in Europe: A clash of tolerances

the Muslims organizing themselves or become commonplace, although they are manifesting themselves as a coherent without any social, legal or political community and demanding some kind of conceptual framework. recognition or status from their governments, but the other way round: But the label ‘Muslim’ has become part and governments and societies consider Muslims parcel of the present debate and there is no a community and develop policies to that turning back. In that way ‘Muslims’ have extent. become part of European society. This, however, has created the next flaw in the The second difference between the current European communal approach. Using the European policies and the Islamic‐Arab term Muslim implies that the actions of that model is the cause for the top‐down person are religiously inspired. The social, approach: European governments actually economical, and cultural problems that the have a vested interest in approaching first and second generations of migrants face Muslims as a community. (In the Islamic‐ in Europe – and these problems are many, Arab model such interest was almost non‐ often very serious, and sometimes even existent.) This interest is related to the large perilous to society at large – are in the case influx of migrants who are facing and of Muslims frequently traced to what is sometimes causing serious problems in their perceived as their primal identity, i.e. Islam. new European environments, and these problems need to be addressed. Now that Islam receives much attention because it is Muslims and Islam have been highlighted as considered the source that may explain the playing a particular and mainly negative role problems caused or experienced by Muslims, in this, European states want Muslims to and that may perhaps provide the answers to organize in order to get a finger behind the these problems. Journalists, police, many problems. policymakers, doctors and nurses, teachers – they all take crash courses Islam in order to There are of course Muslims that indeed understand their difficult clients, pupils, organize themselves on religious grounds. patients and students. It is very doubtful if Whether this is done under pressure of that is helpful, and there is a serious risk that society or governments or on a voluntary after such courses the Muslims will be even basis is hard to tell, but most European more treated as ‘Muslims’, hence again states welcome such development because it sustaining and enhancing the imaginary provides them with contact points with the Muslim community. ‘Muslim community’. Addressing religion in order to explain and solve societal problems is unique in recent Imaginary communities European political tradition. It is also a Does this mean that a new European misguided approach, for it runs the risk of communal model is being developed? If so, it creating Muslim minorities rather than has two major flaws: it is based on imaginary dealing with them. communities, and it designates religion as the identifying factor of this community. 4. Tolerance, minority rights and civil The communal approach of European rights governments and societies relies on the How to address the issue of Muslims and assumption of the existence of a Muslim Muslim minorities in Europe? We have seen community. That is odd now that we have that European strategies and policies in this observed that Muslims in Europe do hardly respect are often quite ambiguous, mostly manifest themselves as a coherent because they lack a conceptual basis or a community. Still, the random use of the consequent strategy. The policies pursued by terms ‘Muslims’ or ‘Muslim community’ have most European countries hinge on a mix of

Netherlands Institute for International Relations ‘Clingendael’ 6 Islam in Europe: A clash of tolerances

minority status and religious tolerance, but view need to be tolerated. However laudable to my opinion neither are very helpful. and therapeutic such a debate may be, there is a considerable risk that it may turn quite nasty since it is in essence an identification Tolerance polarizes of differences that one is not willing to accept Let us return to religious tolerance as a from the other. Tolerance, in other words, broad concept. Although this rings leads to a polarized discussion with the benevolent bells in European ears and majority deciding in the end. allures to past histories of communal harmony – 17th century Holland being a case in point – it is not the right principle to use Minority rights when dealing with Muslims in contemporary Should Muslims then be treated as a Europe. minority, with specific minority rights? It must first be stated that the minority rights First, religious tolerance can be exercised in are a new comer to the European political‐ different, even diametrically opposed ways, legal arena, and as a concept are quite as has been illustrated by the European and underdeveloped. Arab examples. Mixing these models will inevitably lead to confusion, as seems to be Moreover, Europe is more at ease with ethnic the case in contemporary Europe where the minorities than with religious minorities. traditional individual approach is replaced Here we see the ambivalence of Europe’s by a half‐hearted communal approach in communal approach: on the one hand one order to confront the new phenomenon of urges Muslim communities to organize in Muslim ‘communities’. order to establish some form of ‘contact points’ with these communities, but shies Should Europe then embrace the communal away from considering them actual minority model as practiced in the Islamic‐Arab communities. world? In my opinion the disadvantages of that model outweigh the advantages, This shows for instance in the working of especially in the case of the communal model Convention for the Protection of National denying the individual’s right of choice not to Minorities, adopted in 1995 by the European belong to a religious community. Council, which allows for identities on the basis of culture, language, traditions and There is another reason why I strongly religion, but leaves the definition of ‘national object to religious tolerance as a point of minorities’ to each European member state. departure to develop community policies, for Member states that have ratified the it is based on differences rather than Convention have mostly identified minorities commonalities. Tolerance and religious on the basis of nationality, ethnicity or tolerance in particular, implies that people language. So far, it is only Sweden that has and communities are defined on the basis of recognized a religious minority (Jews). otherness, i.e. on the basis of what differentiates ‘us’ the majority from ‘them’ Considering the issue of minority rights and the minorities. Europe’s unease with them, Europe may be in for some surprises on the issue of Also, tolerance is essentially a power play for ‘Muslims in Europe’. For if one considers that tolerance means that a majority is willing to a) Muslims are urged to organize as a tolerate certain disagreeable behaviours or community, b) Muslims are increasingly beliefs of a minority. Practicing tolerance identifying on the basis of Islam, and many implies that the majority needs to decide do so to underscore their otherness, and c) what it will and will not accept to tolerate, international legal instruments stipulate and the minority claiming and explaining the rights for religious communities, we may importance of certain values that in their very well witness in the future that European

Netherlands Institute for International Relations ‘Clingendael’ 7 Islam in Europe: A clash of tolerances

Muslim communities will actually invoke Another advantage of civil rights is that those rights in order to have a separate Muslims, insofar as they deem it pertinent to status granted to them. identify themselves as such, can appeal to these rights both as individuals and as I personally hope that it will not come this communities. It would perhaps even be in far because such a development would, the best interest of Muslims if they organize again, only emphasize the differences themselves not as a community but as an between Muslims and ‘the rest’. That is not emancipation movement. only unnecessary but also contrary to what European governments and societies From the perspective of governments, a civil actually want, namely a Muslim community rights approach would mean that the that is integrated into European society. emphasis is not on Islam, but on the civil issues at hand. Taking out the religious dimension would mean a refocus on the Civil rights actual problems rather than on imaginary A much more fruitful approach, in my view, causes or on imaginary communities. would be to discuss the position of Muslims in terms of civil rights. Civil rights are not The civil rights approach takes out the about tolerance that focuses on the polarization that is the basic characteristic of differences between people, nor about tolerance, takes out the separateness that is minority rights that are based on separation, the basic characteristic of minority status, but about rights that apply to everyone and relates differences and identities to the regardless of gender, colour, sexual unifying factor of rights that apply to all. preference, or religion. Muslims who want to claim the right to be different can do so, on the basis of rights that all people have in Dr Maurits Berger is a Senior research fellow common. with the Netherlands Institute of International Relations 'Clingendael'.

Presentation for the annual meeting of the European Fatwa & Research Council. Sarajevo, May 2007

Netherlands Institute for International Relations ‘Clingendael’