"The Radicals Have Been Waiting for This"

The debate on the dominant culture has only served to make the gulf wider rather than spanning it, and forces within Islam are having a difficult time finding the right course to take, says Aiman Mazyek.

The findings are appalling: according to a survey conducted on behalf of the “Wall Street Journal” (by Custom Research Worldwide) half of western Europeans believe that Muslims are viewed with suspicion in their country. In Germany the total is 61 percent. Another finding: the more influence exercised by right-wing parties, the higher the anti-Muslim sentiment.

The bizarre announcements made almost on a daily basis by the media and politicians that a terrorist attack is imminent serve to raise apprehensions even further. At the same time, our society has sat back and watched with fear as right-wing extremism once again flexes its muscles, even infiltrating state parliaments (DVU and NPD in Saxony, Saarland and Brandenburg), apparently helpless to do anything to stop it or to warn and protect the populace.

Most Muslims are well integrated into society

Over three million Muslims live in Germany, the majority of whom are well integrated into our society. For more than four decades, Muslims – primarily Turks – have obediently paid their taxes and conformed to the German way of life without making many waves – even the crime rates are consistent with the German average.

And, despite fear mongering and sensationalism in the news, we still for the most part live together in peace in our cities. This can be attributed less to the police force or the German “Leitkultur” (dominant or core culture), but is thanks mostly to levelheaded citizens, whether Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or atheist.

The patina of something alien

But have the attacks of 9/11, Madrid, and the murder of Van Gogh now changed everything? These events have indeed increasingly given Islam the patina of something alien and ominous in the minds of many German citizens. A similar mood can be discerned in parliament, where the idea of a dominant German culture is replacing the ostensibly failed ideal of a multicultural society.

The moment seems to be past when warnings not to place Islam and all Muslims under general suspicion might have borne fruit. We can’t fool ourselves: this indiscriminate wariness is already there, as the recent survey clearly shows.

Moreover, the conservatives have increasingly begun to make use of Islam as a foil against which to promote supposedly western, Christian values. The values themselves are unfortunately not the true subject here; the discussion is instead a way to draw a line fencing out what is foreign – i.e. Muslim.

Are we talking about integration or security?

The so-called integration debate is now more about national security. A sharp distinction between the two topics, which would only help to clarify matters, is hardly to be found today even in the media.

The integration debate has turned into an exclusion debate instead – with people explaining exactly who and what in our society they regard as foreign elements and would thus like to see banished.

The mosque visit that used to be taken for granted as part of everyday life is today in itself a suspect activity, and the believer per se a cause for mistrust. “Al-Kaida is everywhere” and its body of thought is presumed to have penetrated to the heart of Muslim society – no matter how openly and earnestly a community presents itself in public or how much it distances itself from extremism.

Even when this community itself falls victim to arson – as has often happened in the past – or to police search commandos – the public hardly takes any notice.

The balancing act of Islamic associations

The mosque congregations and Islamic associations are under enormous pressure today, trying on one hand to demonstrate their willingness to integrate, while at the same time trying to allay the growing dissatisfaction and mistrust of the Muslim minority in the face of the heated debate that “Holland is everywhere” – a balancing act that can hardly succeed for very long.

Within Islam this has resulted in a growing tendency for the conspiracy theorists to dominate the scene. The word “emigration” can once again be heard making its way through the community.

This is further grist for the extremists’ mill. After all, they have been waiting for years for a real clash between the supposedly so hostile and decadent Western society and the allegedly so monolithic Muslim society.

The extremists are today celebrating a resurrection, and their swaggering speeches are enough to chill the hearts of most peaceful and integration-friendly Muslims, while posing a virtually insurmountable challenge to those responsible in their communities.

Muslim self-criticism risks turning into defensiveness

Muslim self-criticism, which has grown louder in recent days, risks turning into defensiveness. Now, even more strongly than before, Muslim associations and scholars are expected to not only condemn terrorist attacks, but also to underpin their attitude with corresponding actions as a sign or symbol of their good intentions.

Something that is difficult for Muslims to admit is that the so-called “Islamist terror” is in part a product of Muslim decadence.

The nihilistic and totalitarian traits manifested by the extremists today were heretofore utterly alien to Muslim thought. Although today the erroneous belief held by some Muslims that totalitarian activities and the perversion of one’s own religious doctrines are the route toward effecting change has irrevocably colored people’s image of Islam, the great majority of the world’s Muslims by no means identify with this view.

This is why Muslims themselves must endeavor to come to terms with this phenomenon more energetically than they have thus far - not only as a way to regain the trust that has been lost in society, but especially in order to allow self-purifying currents to pervade the Muslim communities once again.

Now that the good will enabling relationships of mutual trust between the majority society and its minorities has been nearly exhausted, and the debate on the dominant culture has only served to make the gulf wider rather than spanning it, forces within Islam are having a difficult time finding the right course to take. Any efforts at reconciliation are taken by the extremists to indicate that Muslims are giving in, buckling under to the pressure of the dominant society.

Can reason still win out in the end?

Furthermore, many Muslims must seriously ask themselves how long they can still stand to live in a country where they were born and yet where they now seem to function only as a foil in the clash of cultures. Many non-Muslims in turn see the modest gains achieved after decades of dedicated dialogue between cultures and religions now slipping away through their fingers.

And everyone seems to be asking themselves: Are we only capable anymore of seeing each other as enemies, or can we ever again view each other as friends? Will those engaged in a dialogue between cultures now be forever relegated to the ranks of the naive and starry-eyed? Do the hardliners finally have the scepter firmly in hand for good, or can reason still win out in the end?

Developing long-term perspectives

We can certainly agree that the circumstances depicted above have the effect of strengthening the radical forces and weakening the more moderate voices on both sides. But that can surely not be our goal. Politics and the media should try in future to concentrate less on producing lurid headlines and more on developing a long-term perspective on how, under the changing portents in world politics, Muslims can continue to live peacefully among us.

A good example of where to start comes from the Mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando. Under his leadership the number of annual Cosa Nostra murders has been reduced from 250 to zero – a true sensation.

In a recently published interview, he offered this answer to the question of how he was able to quell the Mafiosi and terrorists: “I always use the image of the Sicilian cart. This is a cart with two wheels. One wheel is the police and laws, the other is the wheel of culture. The important thing is that both wheels turn at the same speed. If one wheel is turning faster than the other, we will go around in circles. I managed to set the second wheel in motion, mobilizing society against the Mafia and terror.”

Aiman A. Mazyek

Aiman A. Mazyek is editor-in-chief of Islam.de, deputy director of the Green Helmets and former press spokesman for the Central Council of Muslims in Germany.

Translation from German: Jennifer Taylor-Gaida