Islam and State in the EU

Rechtspolitisches Symposium 14

Church-State Relationships, Reality of Islam, Imams Training Centres

Bearbeitet von Juan Ferreiro

1. Auflage 2011. Buch. 383 S. Hardcover ISBN 978 3 631 61565 2 Format (B x L): 14 x 21 cm Gewicht: 600 g

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FOREWORD

As this research could be framed within the issue of the relationship between politics and religion, I thought it might be useful if this foreword con- tained the testimony of two very symbolic political and religious authorities. Even though they are well known I wanted to highlight the fact that Juan Fer- nando Lopez Aguilar, currently Chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Jus- tice and Home Affairs of the European Parliament and former Spanish Minister of Justice, has long been fighting for the protection and implementation of hu- Herzegovina, is one of the most representative Islamic Faith leaders in the Old Continent

Over 3 years between 2004 and 2007, I had the honor to serve as Minis- ter of Justice of the Government of Spain. Traditionally, the Ministry of Justice has held the role of exercise the dialogue with religious communities through the General Department of Religious Affairs. Ours has been a country with a history of long hegemony of the Catholic Church. The system of a Confessional State has been a constant in our history - i.e. the establishment of the Catholic Church as the State official Church, as the “only true religion” of the Spanish people, as stated the fundamental principles of the national movement law of 1.958 which ruled until the entry into force of the 1978 Constitution. The legal system based on democracy and respect for freedoms established in Spain with the Constitution has led to a cycle of civic and social deep transformations, with profound consequences in our core values and a progres- sive setting up of religious pluralism, a necessary corollary of religious freedom, that becomes a fundamental right along with religious equality, as it is enshrined in articles 9. 2, 14 and 16 of the Constitution. The transformation of Spain into a society open to immigration and to the integration of diversity has gone in parallel with a growing presence of Is- lam in Spain, in a volume unknown since the expulsion of the “moriscos” by the absolute monarchy of the Habsburg in 1609. 12

In this context I started, as Minister of Justice, a process of dialogue with religious communities aimed at updating the institutional cooperation with the religious factor and the growing religious pluralism in Spanish society. Not without difficulties or resistance, through subtle diplomacy displayed by Mercedes Rico as head of the General Department of Religious Af- fairs, we launched the Foundation pluralism and coexistence, in which Profes- sor Contreras played the role of deepening and extending the horizon of equality in the exercise of freedom of religion. This led - among other measures and initiatives – to active policies aimed to the recognition Islam in a variety of social levels in which, hitherto, was barely visible on the grounds of prejudice, mistrust and perplexity caused by the fear of the different or unknown. With the recognition of the presence of Islam in those public spaces where Muslims could exercise their fundamental rights and duties - education, health, welfare benefits, armed forces, prisons – a step forward was taken to- wards a an arena traditionally dominated by the inertia that encouraged the recognition of the Catholic religion as the only true religious creed which could dialogue with the State. Let us say it clearly: the social context that explains these steps forward and progress is not reversible. Spain will not be anymore a homogenous society neither regarding to religion nor in other human dimensions (ethnic, axiologi- cal) where we have gone beyond the threshold and there is no turning back. These social and legal transformations are here to stay, if they not prelude other larger changes. In order to frame properly the Spanish situation, we should appreciate the effort displayed by a demanding group of experts on religious freedom. The painstaking work of Professor Juan Ferreiro is part of this itinerary of normalization of Islam in a country long accustomed to religious reduction- ism, when not exclusion, to marginalization, and even to the demonization and political persecution, of all forms of heresy, dissent, heterodoxy or agnosticism. Thus, this itinerary includes a strong commitment in the preservation of freedom in equality, and the active fight against all forms of discrimination. Juan Ferreiro´s research regarding to relations between State and Islam in the European Union, with particular reference to the Imams training centers, constitutes a valuable contribution to update the Spanish situation to the bind- ing compromises within our comparative international context: the integration of Spain in an area of freedoms, regional integration i.e. a EU governed by the law, founded on values and anchored in the respect of human dignity. The entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon (December 1, 2009), represents a crucial and certainly enormous step. Finally, it includes the Euro- 13 pean Charter of fundamental rights as annex with full normative force. It con- solidates an area of freedom, security and justice in Europe. And, also a Euro- pean policy subject to the ordinary legislative procedure (i.e. co-decision) and subject to judicial review by the Court of justice. The Treaty of Lisbon also un- derlines a European citizenship as the main engine of the European construc- tion and also as civil context supported by rights and freedoms shared in a space of free movement of people. As a consequence of all this, the protection of religious freedom and the banning of discrimination on religious grounds –and its necessary corollary, religious pluralism- pose many challenges to local, regional, national and Eu- ropean political powers. In my opinion, this well informed, well structured and rigorous research helps to address the first of these challenges: an analytic and accurate of the experiences within other State Members of the European Union, in the terms of a comparative approach very useful to set up the shared minimum guarantees and standards for the protection of religious freedom in a shred legal and political system where the respect for human dignity is the core value. I am convinced that the international cooperation in order to guarantee the right of denominations to form their clergy –in this case the imams- can find in this research a useful tool to a better knowledge of the reality of Islam in Europe, of the efforts that Muslims are doing to integrate into the various constitutional systems of the EU State Members and into the constitutional tradi- tions and principles on which European Union law lays, that can be summa- rized in the respect to human dignity which –with grater eloquence than the in- ternal market of the Euro- explain the idiosyncrasy of Europe as a legal institution. Researches like this one, refresh us the evidence that Europe will not only be constructed by the euro and competence rules, but by citizens able to exercise their rights within their limits and respecting the freedom of others, attitudes that make the EU a remarkable model, a civilization itself. Juan Fernando López Aguilar Professor of Constitutional Law Chair of the committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the European Parliament. Former Minister of Justice of the Spanish Government 14

All three Abrahamic faiths – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, have originated in the East and have come to Europe at various times for different reasons. The arrival of Islam in Europe is as natural and as important for Euro- pean history and culture as the arrival of Judaism and Christianity. It is a fact that none of the messengers of God are of European origin. Hence, no one has the right to claim the priority in terms of nativity of his faith in Europe. But all these three religions belong to Europe and thus Europe has the right, nay, the obligation to treat them as its own. No one should feel as a guest, let alone ghost in Europe. Nuances aside, we are all hosts in Europe in one way or an- other. My colleague the chief mufti of Serbia likes the metaphor which likens the contemporary return of Islam to Western Europe to a return of a long miss- ing brother home. Irrespective of how dear to the family, his comeback inevita- bly causes problems. The family needs to make some space for him after its members accustomed to life without him, distributed his property etc. In the case of Islam this return is accompanied by some problems. One of them is the fear of Muslim unruliness in the administration of their affairs, education of their religious leaders being an important aspect of that. The best antidote to this fear is institutionalization of imam training which will give European governments and non-Muslim citizens a sense of control of the system. For those educational institutions to be successful and fulfil their mission they ought to be accepted by Muslims themselves as well. To be credible and legitimate in the Muslim eyes they need to be a result of partnership between local European authorities and legitimate representatives of Muslim communities. As in any partnership compromises are unavoidable. Muslims should un- derstand that like in any case of institutionalization they will have to give away some of their current ‘freedom’, which often amounts to nothing more but an- archy. That was the case with the establishment of schools of Islamic law, madhahib and the major Islamic learning institution, madrasa in the early cen- turies of Islam in its heartland. The standardization of Islamic learning into schools of law reduced somewhat academic freedom of Islamic scholars – ulama’ - but established the conditions for the maintenance of stability and necessary unity of the Muslim Community. Similarly, the madrasa was established when the Muslim government needed to gain some control over both the teaching and learning process in Islam. However the institutions are so important to warrant such a sacrifice. Bosnian Muslims, as one of the indigenous European Muslim nations, have made this compromise over a century ago probably because they understood well that 15 while nothing in human history can be generated without individual men and women, nothing can last without institution. In exchange for submitting some of their religious autonomy European Muslims are right to expect that their legitimate voices be included, heard and respected. They will also need adminis- trative and financial support of European institutions. We wish them and their governments all the best. The Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina with its long history of institutional interpretation and administration of Islam in secular state as well as its rich tradition of Islamic education and ambitions in this field is ca- pable of and willing to contribute significantly to this process. It is our hope that eventual institutionalization of imam training in the European Union will be a win-win situation for all and that the work of Professor Juan Ferreiro Gal- guera is a step forward.

May God help us all to work together for a permanent peace and security in Europe, our common motherland.

Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina

III

Islam today is, after Christianity, the second largest religion in Europe with more than 15-20 million adherents. This number is expected to double by 2025.1 Muslims in Europe are a diverse population of citizens, as well as re- cently arrived migrants. But Islam is still a rather unknown religion amongst non-Muslim citizens. And this lack of knowledge is, among others, one of the causes of Islamophobia. In many opinion polls people that recognize themselves as having prejudices against Muslims admit at the same time that they hardly know anything about Islam. Therefore their feelings and attitudes to- wards anything or anyone related to Islam are fed essentially by clichés, some- times disseminated by the media. One of the unknown things about Islam referred to is the Muslims’ religious leaders: who are the Imams in Europe? Where do they come from? Where have they been trained? How many imam training centres are there in the European Union? What kind of education do they offer? Answering these

1 Muslims in Europe. A report on 11 EU cities.Open Society Institute, 2009 (At home in Europe Project), p. 22