"Islamic Cultural Life in Europe is Multi-Faceted"

With his opening speech on cultural and political orientations of Islam in Europe, Sami Zubaida initiated the international research project on Islamic Culture and Modern Society. Islam and Europe are culturally increasingly intertwined, Zubaida says

photo: Jane Ricketts — Over the course of the 20th century leaders who successfully challenged the hegemony of the Western powers always enjoyed great favour with sectors of world opinion, including Muslim nationalists, says Sami Zubaida

Prof. Zubaida started out by stressing that Islam and Islamic culture have become a very multi-faceted part of European culture despite the fact that strands of the public discourse and the media have tended to see Islam as a totalized unity of communities and forces which are distinct, or even hostile, to an equally totalized West which is stereotyped as being liberal and democratic.

This totalization, said Zubaida, is reinforced by proclamations to similar effects by confrontational Muslims, emphasising the unity and uniformity of some universal umma, defined in political as much as in religious terms, and one distinct from a West conceived as a hostile enemy.

According to Zubaida, the reality is quite clearly different: Muslims in the West, as elsewhere, are differentiated on a variety of dimensions, which correspond to different religious, or secular, orientations and patterns of practice and association, as attested by a wide variety of observation and research.

Resentment and racism among the migrant communities

Zubaida explained that Muslim communities that have their roots in migrant workers groupings continue to occupy the lower levels of the class structure in Europe, with notable minority exceptions of business people and professionals. The Muslim communities themselves are also divided by class factors.

In Britain, for instance, Bangladeshis tend to have the lowest levels of education and occupational mobility, Indians the highest. Accordingly, said Zubaida, there is much resentment and stereotyping, even racism, among the various ethnic migrant communities.

Zubaida also talked about generational conflicts among Muslim migrant families. The generations born and raised in Europe, he stated, invariably undergo European education, tend to be more proficient and literate in the national languages, and are generally more knowledgeable and open to local cultures and customs.

"These factors can lead to quite different orientations", Mr. Zubaida argued, "ranging from assimilation to the dominant culture to heightened religious identification, but distinct from that of parents."

In his lecture, Zubaida also addressed the issue of the relation between communal leaders and the Muslim migrant community. "In relation to the politics of the host country, communal leaders often adopt instrumentalist strategies aimed at bargaining votes and support for advantages to the community in education, housing and employment, and, crucially, the public recognition of communal culture and religious exigencies. This includes, for instance, the provision of halal food in school meals, the allowance for the observance of prayers and the recognition of Ramadan and religious holidays."

Communal divisions of this kind, stated Zubaida, tend to get in the way of attempts by Muslim leaders to get recognition for an overall Muslim community as such, in parallel to Catholics, Protestants and Jews.

"This is especially pertinent in countries such as Belgium or Germany where corporate religious communities have financial and fiscal advantages. […] Given the variety of communal interests, leadership rivalries and political orientations, however, it will always be difficult to designate official representatives of Muslims per se in relation to governments."

Islamic countries acting "into" Europe

In order to demonstrate just how far the Islamic and the European culture are intertwined, Zubaida mentioned that some Islamic countries, crucially Saudi Arabia and, to a lesser extent, Iran, have long started to act "into" Europe's politics of the interior, e.g. by building mosques and exporting imams and teachers to various European cities. In the process, they are propagating their brand of Islam against other national and cultural traditions.

Quoting from various statistics, Mr. Zubaida also revealed some facts that may come as a surprise to some. French sociologist Remy Leveau, e.g., concludes that a substantial majority of Maghrebians, around 70%, identified with France and expressed a will to integrate into French life, including 64% who expressed willingness to fight in the French forces. The 'rejectionists' were a minority of around only 15%, those who sought a counter-identity in Islam, some seeking a Muslim separatism.

Contrary to public opinion, stated Zubaida, the great majority of Muslims in the West are lax in their religious observance or entirely secular. One study conducted in France in 1995 claimed that 68% of Algerians living in France declared themselves not to have a religion. Another survey, conducted by Felice Dassetto, estimates that some 60% of all European Muslims are secular in one form or another, agnostic, indifferent or cultural Moslems.

The radical Islamist position mirrors Western sentiments

In his concluding remark Zubaida put the appeal of the radical Islamist position into perspective. It is, he said, not confined to the organised groups or the 'terrorists' but can strike a chord with many disaffected Muslims in Europe and elsewhere. Many Muslims in the West and especially the younger generations may have shared in the enthusiastic adulation of Bin Laden and his organisation following 11 September.

"To put this in historical perspective, we should note that over the course of the twentieth century leaders who successfully challenged the hegemony of the Western powers always enjoyed great favour with sectors of world opinion, including Muslim nationalists. This was true for Hitler and Stalin, then Nasser, Khomeini and Saddam."

According to Prof. Zubaida's analysis, this phenomenon is by no means confined to Muslims, but widely shared throughout the world, including significant sectors of European opinion hostile to the US and its perceived attempt at world domination.

"The fact remains that these enthusiasms are largely confined to the level of sentiment, and only in a minority of cases progress to the level of organisation and mobilisation. The fact that some British, American and European young Muslims were found in the ranks of al-Qa'ida shows that there are organisations and networks active in these countries, recruiting young Muslims for militant action in other parts of the world, or even for violent interventions in their countries of residence", said Zubaida.

"The great majority of Muslims in the West, however, are not active in politics, and when they are, they tend to be concerned with local and national issues rather then global confrontations. By all accounts, the majority also share in the largely secularised culture and society of other sectors of the European population."

Sami Zubaida teaches politics and Sociology at Birbeck College, University of London. He is research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and has held honorary and visiting posts in Cairo, Istanbul, Berkeley, Aix-en-Provence and Paris. His main fields of study are religion, ethnicity and nationalism in Middle East politics and society. He also writes on food and culture.

transcription: Lewis Gropp