MMUSLIM IINTEGRATION:: CHALLENGING CONVENTIONAL WISDOM IN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES AUTHORS : STEFFEN ANGENENDT PAUL M. BARRETT JONATHAN LAURENCE CERI PEACH JULIANNE SMITH TIM WINTER SEPTEMBER 2007 MUSLIM INTEGRATION 1 ABOUT THE CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) seeks to advance global security and prosperity in an era of economic and political transformation by providing strategi c insights and practical policy solut ions to decisionmakers. CSIS serves as a strategic planning partner for the government by conducting research and analysis and developing po licy initiatives that look into the future and anticipate change. Founded in 1962 by David M. Abshire and Admiral Arleigh Burke , CSIS is a bipartisan, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. with more than 220 full -time staff and a large network of affiliated experts . Former U.S. senator Sam Nunn became chairman of the CSIS Board of Trustees in 1999, and John J. Hamre has led CSIS as its president and chief executive o fficer since April 2000. ABOUT THE TRANSATLANTIC DIALOGUE ON TERRORISM The CSIS Transatlantic Dialogue on Terrorism (TDT) was launched in 2003 by the International Security Program and the Europe Program to promote an open and timely discourse between counterterrorism experts from across the United States and Europe. The transatlantic community’s experience with global terrorism since September 11, 2001 has presented complex and novel security challenges and new requirements for international cooperatio n. The Transatlantic Dialogue on Terrorism seeks to identify common counterterrorism priorities among its American and European participants and also highlight areas where consensus is lacking. The project’s format involves a series of closed roundtables , alternating between the United States and Europe, involving the leading researchers, intelligence and security professionals, academics and journalists in the field. © 2007 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights re served. 2 MUSLI M INTEGRATION TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface …... ……………………………… ………. …………………… ………... ……………………………… …………... 5 Muslim Population of Europe: A Brief Overview of Demographic Trends and Socioeconomic Integration, with Particular Reference to Britain by Ceri Peach …… ………………… …. ..... .................................. .............. 7 Islamism and Europe’s Muslims: Recent Trends by Tim Winter ……... ……… ……….. ………… ……….. 33 Muslims, Integration, and Security in Europe by Steffen Angenendt ….. …… ……….. ………… …………. 45 Islam and Citi zenship in Germany by Jonathan Laurence ……… ….. …………… ……….. ……… ………… 53 European Approaches to the Challenge of Radical Islam by Julianne Smith ……… ……….. ………….. 65 American Muslims and the Question of Assimilation by Paul M. Barrett ………… ……….. ……………. 75 CSIS TRANSATLANTIC DIALOGUE O N TERRORISM 3 4 MUSLI M INTEGRATION PREFACE While questions of Muslim assimilation and integration have long been a feature of scholarly debates in Europe about identity, religion, and politics, two events in 2004 catapulted such questions into policymaking cir cles and the mainstream media. The bombings in Madrid in March and the murder of the Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, in the Netherlands in November alerted the general public and the transatlantic community more broadly to the danger lurking in the shadows of increasingly disenfranchised and alienated Muslim populations inside Europe . Almost immediately after these two incidents occurred, high -level conferences were convened, special exposés on Europe’s “parallel societies” were written, and various policy initiatives were launched, all with the goal of strengthening the public’s and governments’ understanding of the challenges at hand. Since then, a number of assumptions about the size of the Muslim populations in Europe, their grievances, their sense of identity, and the degree to which elements of immigrant communities have embraced radical s entiments have begun to harden. Today, Europe’s “integration challenge” is often a core component of European or transatlantic discussions on terrorism an d the root s of radicalization. That theme also features prominently in political debates across the continent. In fact, it is hard to turn on the television or radio in Europe without stumbling on some form of commentary on this subject. As part of its ongoing Tr ansatlantic Dialogue on Terrorism, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC dedicated its seventh meeting in the series to Muslim integration and assimilation. In partnership with the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SW P) in Berlin, Germany, CSIS hosted a two -day event entitled, “ The Transatlantic Dialogue on Muslims in Europe: Dealing with, and Looking Beyond, the Terrorist Threat .” The purpose of this meeting was to question and examine many of the conclusions that Europeans and Americans have drawn in recent years about the Muslim commun ities in their own societies. Is the often -cited figure of 20 million Muslims in Europe accurate? What about predictions that Muslims will outnumber non -Muslims in France by mid -cent ury? Is promoting interaction among religious groups the best way to integrate Muslim communities? Are our general characterizations of first and s econd generation Muslims true? Can Islam be re conciled with European values? Are American Muslims better inte grated than their European counterparts? In addition to hosting the two -day conference in Berlin , CSIS commissioned six papers – three by European authors and three by Americans. What follows is an edited c ollection of those six pieces. The findings are fascinating. Many of the papers reveal the sometimes shaky foundations upon which Europeans and Americans are crafting inte gration theories and policies. The papers also show that despite efforts to improve the West’s collective understanding of Islam and Muslim integration in American and European societies, many countries remain ill -equipped to deal with groups that define themselves in t erms of religious affiliation. As Paul Barrett, author of American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion (2007) writes in his paper, “To better understand this complex reality, and to put ourselves in a position to encourage the more hopeful trends concerning Muslims, a careful sifting of what facts w e have is very much in order.” This collection of essays is one such attempt. The Transatlantic Dialogue on Terro rism owes many debts. In the last year, our principal funding came from the Robert Bosch Foundation, which has supported us generously and shared our belief that the work of the Dialogue is essenti al for building bridges between both leading researchers and institutions on both sides of the Atlantic. Daniel Benjamin, Director of the Center on the United States and Europe at T he Brookings Institution and co - creator of the Transatlantic Dialogue on T errorism during his tenure at CSIS as a Senior Fellow deserves special thanks for his substantive contributions, insight, and guidance througho ut the course of this project. This CSIS TRANSATLANTIC DIALOGUE O N TERRORISM 5 publication and the conference in Berlin would not have come to fruition with out his wealth of expertise on this particular issue. We are grateful as well to our conference partners: the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Germany, which hosted the Dialogue’s meeting in February in Berlin . In particularly, we would like to t hank Roderick Parkes for his assistance in making the Berlin conference a success. The conference surpassed our expectations, both in terms of the liveliness of exchange and the fruitfulness of ideas because of the SWP’s superb preparation and substantive contributions. At CSIS, we have also benefited from the strong support of our president and CEO, John Hamre . More members of the CSIS staff have contributed to the Dialogue than could possibly be mentioned, but one whose involvement has been critical is Na talia Filipiak, whose research, writing and logis tical support has been heroic. Derek Mix , Elizabeth Gray Simmons, and Niccolo Pantucci from the CSIS Europe Program also provided crucial editing and formatting support. Milena Staneva served as designer -in -chief of this publication and Clay Risen brought an exceptional editor’s eye to each chapter. We greatly appreciate all their assistance. Julianne Smith Director and Senior Fellow Europe Program, CSIS 6 MUSLI M INTEGRATION MUSLIM POPULATION OF EUROPE : A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS AND SOCIOECONOMIC INTEGRATION , WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO BRITAIN By Ceri Peach 1 Today the Muslim population of non -Russian Europe is about twenty -one million (Table 1). We do not know the pr ecise numbers because few European countries include census questions on religion, and statistics are inferred from different bases. Some keep statistics by citizenship, some by birthplace, some by ethnicity, and some by religion. France, for example, whic h keeps statistics neither by ethnicity nor religion, probably has the largest but least precisely known numbers. It is clear, however, that the European Muslim population is young and fast -growing, in a continent of aging people. 2 The recognition of th e rapidly growing Muslim population has come as a shock. The years from 1950 to 1973 saw a rapid growth of foreign labor in Western Europe. At first it was drawn from adjacent or nearby European countries: France from Spain, Portugal, and Italy;