Is There an Identity of European Muslims?*
By Mustafa Ceric**
Grand Mufti of Bosnia
Europe as an open society with multiple identities
There is a miracle and a puzzle in Muslim history that cannot be rationally
explained. The miracle is the speed and scope of the early seventh-century
spread of Islam, from a poor Arab-Bedouin perspective, into the two great
civilizations of the time the Persian and the Byzantine. The puzzle is the
rapid decline of Islamic civilization by the 18th century, after it had proved
its unprecedented vitality and capability. By that time, Muslims had lost the
geographical, cultural, economic, and political impact on world affairs to the
point of their being put to the margin of so-called modern history. This state
of affairs made Muslims for the last two centuries struggle for their comeback
to the mainstream of modern or global history. Consequently, Muslims have been
busy with two main movements aimed at regaining their place in history:
secularization and re-Islamization.
We may recognize the problem of the modern Muslim identity in the debate
about the kind of secularization of Muslim history and the method of
(re-)Islamization of the Muslim mind. The idea of secularization did not come
to Muslims as a result of their own experience. The majority of Muslim ulama
(scholars), and some Muslim intellectuals as well, have always felt that the
idea of secularization of Muslim societies has come from the West by political
and sometimes even military pressure.
This is one of the reasons why the secularization of Muslim history, except
perhaps in Turkey and Tunisia, has failed, and this is why the drive for a kind
of re-Islamization of the Muslim mind is taking place. Muslims have refused to
give up the idea of a universal community of Islam (the Ummah) even if it
means, at least for the time being, a utopia. To Muslims who believe in the
concept of Islamization, secularism is nothing more than an ethnic, racial, and
national conception of cultural identity.
Nevertheless, Muslims did accept the concept of the nation state identity for
whatever reasons. Thus they are aware of the idea of multiple identities,
meaning that one can find a satisfaction for a universal identity such as an
Islamic identity in a presumably non-Islamic state. And this is why I asked, is
there an identity of European Muslims?
Who Needs European Muslim Identity?
But, first, we should ask, who needs European Muslim identity? It seems that
Muslims do not need it because their Islamic identity is so universal and so
inclusive that they do not need any additional identity. Europe is not dar
al-Islam (the abode of Islam) and so they cannot identify themselves with it.
Europeans do not need the European Muslim identity either because it seems that
they care less for anybody's religious identity.
However, I believe that both the Muslims who live in Europe and the Europeans
who can now see a Muslim in their neighborhood and so need not go to
Afghanistan to find one, need to recognize that there is such a thing as the
European Muslims or the Muslim Europeans. It is exactly because Islam is a
universal and inclusive faith and religion that Muslims should be open for new
cultural and national identities. Unlike Judaism, which is more concerned about
its missionary work in the sense of political support for Israel, both Islam
and Christianity are missionary faiths in the sense of cross-cultural and
cross-national religious activities. And Europeans should care for an identity
of the European Muslims because it is not correct to say that Europe is
exclusively a Christian continent. It is a historical fact that many centuries
have witnessed not only Muslims but also Jewish people living in Europe. Both
of them made significant contributions to European life and culture.
Europeans should not only become aware of the fact of the presence of Muslims
in their neighborhood; they should also know that because of that presence,
their own identity is strengthened and is becoming more meaningful. Let me
remind you of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. The German physicist
Heisenberg discovered that it is difficult to truly know and measure everything
about an object, whether it is an electron or a rabbit, because the very act of
observing it changes its behavior. Therefore, everything else other than humans
can only be known through isolation.
We humans are completely different. We can only be known, and we can only
know ourselves, through interaction with the world around us. In contrast to
electrons and rabbits, we come to know ourselves through the research,
experimentation, and modification of our relationship toward the world we live
in.
Isolation is torture and destroys all self-awareness. Only relationships
provide the identity that derives as a consequence of meeting people. In
addition, loyalty to the society in which we live determines our individual and
collective identity. A community or society is not only a necessary choice;
relationships are that which define us, through which we come to know
ourselves, and through which the world comes to know us. People live their
identity through relations with the world around them. Those who spend their
time in isolation or segregation thinking they will come to know themselves in
that way are mistaken. Quite the opposite: Man comes to know himself through
contact and interaction with that which surrounds him, alive or dead.
Common Values
Because of the presence of Muslims in Europeans neighborhood,
their own identity is strengthened and is becoming more meaningful.
In order to understand the meaning of the identity of the European Muslims,
we need to know basic common values with which we may identify ourselves.
As much as they are universal, the values are common. The most important of
all values that are universal and thus common to all of us are the value of
life, the value of freedom, the value of religion, the value of property, and
the value of human dignity. Therefore, the European values are common as much
as they are universal, and they are universal as much as they are common to all
of us.
Let us begin with the value of life and the idea of the Ten Commandments: You
shall not kill, which means you shall not commit the holocaust, you shall not
commit genocide, and you shall not commit ethnic cleansing. What is more common
to all of us than the value of life?
Freedom is an important value; without freedom life has no real meaning. The
road from slavery to freedom has been one of the most important journeys in
human history. In addition, the value of freedom is a European value that is so
precious, it was earned by the priceless human blood through many generations.
Respecting religion is another common European value in the sense that the
Europeans have had the freedom to choose one of many religions that have been
arriving at the European continent throughout history: Judaism, Christianity,
Islam, as well as many other Eastern religions. None of the main European
religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam has originated in Europe. All of
them have come from the East.
The right to have property as a means of decent human life is a value of
Europe that should be asserted as a common human value. Europe is now a haven
for many people who are becoming independent through the European economic
prosperity.
Finally, the value of human dignity is a common value that must be developed
further in Europe, especially in terms of fighting against xenophobia, racism,
fascism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, etc.
Some Definitions of Europe
Writing in 1751, Voltaire described Europe as
A kind of great republic divided into several states, some monarchical, the
others mixed
but all corresponding with one another. They all have the same
religious foundation, even if divided into several confessions. They all have
the same principle of public law and politics, unknown in other parts of the
world. (Davies 7)
In his attempt to demonstrate the unity of European culture (Die Einheit der
Europaeischen Kulture), T.S. Eliot wrote in 1946
The dominant feature in creating a common culture between peoples, each of
which has its own distinct culture, is religion
I am talking about the common
tradition of Christianity, which has made Europe what it is, and about the
common cultural elements, which this common Christianity has brought with it
It is in Christianity that our arts have developed; it is in Christianity that
the laws of Europeuntil recentlyhave been rooted, it is against a background
of Christianity that all our thought has significance.
An individual European may not believe that the Christian Faith is true; and
yet what he says, and makes, and does, will all
depend on (the Christian
heritage) for its meaning. Only a Christian culture could have produced a
Voltaire or a Nietzsche. I do not believe that the culture of Europe could
survive the complete disappearance of the Christian Faith. (Davies 9)
On the relationship between Europe and the other cultures and religions, Hugh
Seton-Watson has a more inclusive approach when he wrote in 1985
The interweaving of the notions of Europe and of Christendom is a fact of
History which even the most brilliant sophistry cannot undo
But it is no less
true that there are strands in European culture that are not Christian: The
Roman, the Hellenic, arguably the Persian, and (in modern centuries) the
Jewish. Whether there is also a Muslim strand is more difficult to say. (Davies
15)
Europe should be guided by the individual right to life, freedom, religion,
property, and dignity that will lead to a collective consciousness of a common
human destiny.
The broad pluralism of values of the European Union should follow these noble
principles of human conduct:
1.The argument of the might of big nations should be replaced by the
argument of the right of small nations.
2. The argument of historical myth should be replaced by the argument of
historical responsibility.
3. The argument of poor political compromise should be replaced by the
argument of strong moral commitment.
4. The argument of sinful behavior should be replaced by the argument of
Adam's humble repentance.
5. The argument of falsehood should be replaced by the argument of Abraham's
truth.
6. The argument of revenge should be replaced by the argument of Jesus's love.
7. The argument of war should be replaced by the argument of Muhammad's peace
to all mankind.
Identity as Continuity of Memory
Europe has to face many essential questions:
What is the European memory, if any?
What is the continuity of the European memory as its identity?
Is it political only? It is cultural in nature? Is it religious in focus?
Is the European memory only a past memory?
Does Europe have a present memory?
Does Europe dare to have a future memory with many faiths?
Is Europe ready to accept the memory of Islam as its continuity of memory
as its multiple identities?
I am afraid that Europe is still hesitant to accept the memory of its future
in which Judaism and Islam are equal along with Christianity.
I see Europe as an open society with multiple identities of a particular
political mind, of a unique cultural heart, of a pluralistic religious soul
that is happy in its unity of purpose with a diversity of spiritual
opportunities.
Source
Davies, Norman. Europe: A History. London: Pimiico, 1997.
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* This article is based on a paper presented at the International Forum
Bosnia, Mostar, August 9, 2006.
** Mustafa Ceric has been the Grand Mufti of Bosnia since 1993. He is also
the Grand Mufti of Sanjak, Croatia, and Slovenia. He graduated from Madrasah in
Sarajevo and from the Faculty of Arabic at Al-Azhar University, Cairo. In 1987
he received his PhD in Islamic studies from the University of Chicago
Source:
http://www.islamonline.net/English/EuropeanMuslims/CommunityCivilSociety/2006/09/03.shtml
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