Euro-Islam: One Word, Two Concepts, Lots of Problems

The word "Euro-Islam" is making the rounds again, as it always does when relations between the non-Muslim majority society and the Muslim religious community in Europe are not at their best

When Euro-Islam is invoked, the "Leitkultur" (guiding culture) is not far. Wishful thinking dictates the creation of a specific form of Islam which eliminates the sense of "otherness" which many people in Europe feel when they read or hear of Islam or when they encounter it.

It seems that the problem could be solved if Muslims were to include democracy and human rights, the equality of men and women and the separation of church and state in their creed, as it were.

The discussion of Euro-Islam is a symptom of a falling out. This crisis has been aggravated by the violence in the Middle East and elsewhere in the Islamic world, which is often accompanied by militant verbal campaigns against "the West".

The murder of the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a young Moroccan-born man with a Dutch passport has summoned up the bogey of the "parallel society" and the phantom of "failed integration". How calm things would be, by contrast, if Euro-Muslims were just like the rest of society.

Two concepts

Admittedly, the Muslims themselves are not exactly embracing this kind of humanistic construction. This is especially true of the understanding of Euro-Islam as propounded by people like the Göttingen political scientist Bassam Tibi, who claims to have invented this variant of Islam.

He asserts that Muslims must adopt the fundamental values of Europe’s liberal-democratic political and social order part and parcel in order to emerge from their "decaying" religion and mental attitudes and find their place in a modern world shaped by Europe. Many Muslims regard this as a demand for assimilation and reject it as an attack on Islamic identity.

Tibi’s departure from the global Islamic religious community (Umma) is countered by Tariq Ramadan, Islamic scholar, writer and Franco- and Anglophone teacher of philosophy. He defines the term "Euro-Islam" differently. Rather than being an Islam of immigrants, it must find new answers to the challenges of the time. However, it is based on the "universally valid" fundamental values of Islam.

Fear of losing faith

The idea is to adapt traditional Islamic concepts to European conditions without making major concessions. This way Tariq Ramadan hopes to free Europe’s Muslims from their "twofold inferiority complex" toward the Western world and toward an Islamic world which claims to represent the pure Islamic doctrine. He demands that Muslims in Europe take a more active role.

In contrast to Tibi, the focus here is on participation rather than a kind of assimilation. Ramadan’s concept is especially appealing to young Muslims. However, many non-Muslim Europeans wonder whether to see the Euro-Muslim Ramadan as a liberal reformer or a proselytizing fundamentalist.

The very fact that Tibi meets with approval from broad non-Muslim spheres of society is cause for many Muslims to be skeptical. A watered-down Islam whose chief commandment is subordination to a western system of values trivializes religion, while Ramadan’s dynamic self-assertion as a European Muslim is more a program of action than a theological solution for religious challenges.

Thus the word "Euro-Islam" has confusing associations for most Muslims. They prefer the approach of pragmatic "adaptation to European lifestyle without giving up the principles of Islam," as recently formulated by the Chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Nadeem Elyas. There is too strong a fear that "Euro-Islam" could mean a loss of fundamental elements of faith after all, as well as giving non-Muslims the power to define what Islam is.

A lack of infrastructure

Once again it is proving problematic that Islam has no clerical infrastructure or an organized clergy with the authority to answer questions about reforms in theology and religious law. Who can speak with authority? There is no one whose background and training qualifies them for the task, no personalities that stand out for their knowledge or charisma.

The speakers and functionaries of the clubs and associations in which German Muslims organize themselves – albeit in the minority – have backgrounds in such fields as political science, mechanical engineering, education or medicine.

The chorus of voices is correspondingly mixed when the crucial issue is raised: the validity of the Sharia, the religious law which is inseparable from the divine revelation itself and the tradition passed down by the Prophet Mohammed. Everyone has a different idea of "Sharia". According to Elyas, one would first have to determine which parts of it are applicable in which context. This probably reflects the convictions of most European Muslims.

When all is said and done, one sees a broad current of efforts toward reform, attempts to dissolve the contradictions between a traditional understanding of Islam and the reality of European societies. At the same time, it cannot be denied that many arguments come across as hair-splitting. The "Islamic Charta" passed by the Central Council of the Muslims in Germany in 2002 is no exception.

Understandably, many questions have been raised about statements such as this one: "There is no contradiction between Islamic doctrine and the core substance of human rights". Similarly evasive formulations can be found elsewhere, also as regards the right to freedom of religion or the right to change one’s religion. Still, this gesture toward dialogue helps reduce the most basic barriers. Once an agreement has been reached on larger issues, it will be possible to have a more objective discussion of outwardly more controversial questions such as headscarves and schooling issues.

In view of these developments, Elyas prefers to speak of a "European lifestyle for Muslims" rather than a "European Islam". The distinction is both shrewd and appealing. It has further facets which are become increasingly evident, such as for example the use of European languages in religious ceremonies and schooling. Crucially, this goes along with a tendency for Muslim communities to free themselves from the Islamic structures and teachings in their original countries.

The establishment of theological departments at European universities is giving additional impetus to the Europeanization of Islam. In Germany departments have recently been founded at the Universities of Münster and Frankfurt am Main.

The future

The issue of "Euro-Islam" will lose its cachet to the extent that Muslims organize their lifestyle in Europe in a spirit of integration. However, by the look of things, this will not be a "European" lifestyle. Rather, Muslims in each European country will develop their lifestyles according to the given cultural and historical traditions and the social and political conditions.

The extent of the differences can be seen even in two neighboring countries such as Germany and Austria: due to the status of the Bosnian Muslims in the Habsburg Empire, Austria, unlike Germany, officially recognizes Islam as a religious community. Developments with great repercussions are taking place in Turkey as well. Under the government of the "Party for Justice and Development", the country is both more Islamic and more European than ever before in recent history.

Muslim-Arab intellectual circles are also interested in the development of the relationship between the European Union and a Turkey that stands for both democracy and modern Islam. If Turkey were to become a member of the EU, it would represent an especially attractive version of Islam in Europe.

By contrast, the same circles have only a marginal interest in the concept of Euro-Islam. Whenever it is mentioned in the Arab press, it is only to proclaim the refusal to interfere with such a discussion or even participate in it. Thus the hope cherished in some quarters that Europe could be the starting point for a reform of Islam as a whole seems unlikely to be fulfilled.

This reform must come from the societies of the Islamic world themselves. Important steps in this direction are being taken in Indonesia and Malaysia, Iran and Egypt. Religious reform is being discussed in Turkey as well. Since Islam has no church which could push through a reform, this continues to be a process with many regional facets. It cannot be separated from far-reaching social and political transformations in the Islamic world.

Udo Steinbach

This article was previously published by the Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

Prof. Dr. Udo Steinbach is the Director of the German Institute for Middle East Studies in Hamburg.

Translated from the German by Isabel Cole

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