"If one takes apart the term “Islamophobia,” with its suggestion of some sort of psychiatric aberration, it is useful to ask where the word “phobia” actually applies, and where it does not.
There is indeed a fear of Islam which is irrational and which can plausibly be compared with other dystopias of Western civilization being inundated by alien hordes. One can go back here at least to the 1920s, when there was widespread fear of the “yellow peril,” more recently replicated in fear of a takeover by Japanese and now Chinese economic power. More directly related to the fear of demographic conquest is a novel published in French in 1973 by Jean Raspail, The Camp of the Saints (thus titled in the English translation). Muslims play no important role in this fantasy. A crazed Hindu preacher calls on all the poor in Calcutta to get on a ship and sail to Europe in order to live the good life there. A mighty movement emerges and a huge flotilla of ships, carrying hundreds of thousands of pilgrim “saints” moves toward Europe. Half-hearted attempts by naval warships to stop the flotilla are given up, so as not to create a massacre. Europe waits helplessly as the flotilla approaches. The radio stops all programs and only broadcasts classical European music—the dying song of a doomed civilization.
The fantasies of “Germanorabia” or “Eurabia,” not to mention “Londonostan,” stand in this tradition. The demographic realities do not support these prognoses. As to the economic realities, a takeover by Chinese corporations, not likely in any case, is even less likely than a takeover by Arabian oil tycoons. And of course these phobias presuppose a stereotype of “the Muslim” as inexorably filled with animosity toward Western values. Except for the admittedly important areas of gender and family, there is again no empirical basis for the stereotype. Survey data from Europe show that most Muslim immigrants are law-abiding and want to become part of the host societies. Troubling numbers of Muslims in Europe voice sympathy for terrorists, but much of this can be attributed to a rhetorical expression of social frustrations and is very rarely translated into actual support. The community of terrorists and their active supporters in Europe is very small—certainly a cause for concern by the authorities, but not a justification for a generalization about Muslims.
Nevertheless, not all the fears subsumed under the term “Islamophobia” are irrational. As far as Islam in general is concerned, there are indeed some aspects of the religion that make for tension with Western values. It is not so much a propensity to legitimate violence—this propensity, I think, exists in all religious traditions, certainly in Judaism and Christianity. But as an Egyptian journalist recently put it (courageously, one may say)—not all Muslims are terrorists, but most terrorists are Muslims. Terrorism inspired by a particular interpretation of Islam is real. One should take its Islamic self-identification seriously, and not claim that it is “really” about something other than religion. The reiterated statements by Western political and religious leaders that there is no war against Islam are correct and desirable. But there is also an understandable tendency to underplay the Islamic contents of terroristic ideology. It was very laudable that President Bush, immediately after September 11, announced that “Islam means peace”. I assume that Bush’s credentials as an Islam scholar are modest, so somebody must have told him that the name of the religion comes from the Arabic word for peace,salaam. There may be an etymological connection, but the name actually means “submission”—‘aslama.
Some Muslim scholars have proposed that the term jihad, usually translated as “holy war,” refers to the struggle for faith in the lives of believers. Perhaps so. But throughout much of the history of Islam the term has meant violence against the infidel, and much of what we now know as the Muslim world is the result of conquest by force of arms. Yet the main difficulty with Western values for Muslims is the very close relationship between religion and the state in Islam, ever since Muhammad became a political and military leader in Medina. Survey data show that majorities of Muslims everywhere support democracy. But this does not necessarily include the separation of religion and the state. I understand that in Arabic there is no separate word for “religion”. The common word is din—the same as the word for law.
It is also the case that a sizable number of especially young Muslims in Europe do not want to become part of the host societies, and they are often encouraged in this by what is preached in mosques and on the internet. Such ideas are very plausible in lower-class communities, as in the banlieus that surrounds big cities in France. But the call for non-integration is also embraced by some intellectuals who live in comfortable circumstances. Thus there is the real prospect of a religiously defined subculture, living in tension with Western democratic values. The threat of violence associated in public opinion with this prospect makes for a readiness to give in to the slightest expression of Muslim victimization. Also, one must not overlook the substantial increase of anti-Semitism in Europe, much of it fueled by Muslim hostility to Israel. Anti-Zionism here merges with a long European tradition of hostility against Jews. The tradition seemed suppressed in the recent past, but the taboo against anti-Semitism, caused by revulsion against the horror of the Holocaust, seems to be fading. Barring the unlikely establishment of real peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the growing participation of Muslims in European politics can only enhance this alarming development. In sum, there are cultural and political anxieties caused by the increasingly visible presence of Islam—the call from the minaret overwhelming the familiar sound of church bells—which cannot be simply put down as phobias and expressions of racism.
I have no neat package of policies to recommend, certainly not in the area of national security and counter-terrorism. There is an increasingly robust debate within the Muslim world on the relationship between Islam and modernity, and outsiders are likely to be counter-productive if they try to meddle in this. Outsiders cannot tell Muslims what their faith is supposed to mean. All the same, it is certainly useful if Western leaders continue to emphasize that they are not engaged in a “war against Islam.”
The overall issue of immigration into Europe will require policy changes that are simultaneously more and less liberal. More liberal: Europe urgently needs more immigrants, and its borders should be as open as possible, with preference given to immigrants that can contribute to the economy. Less liberal: Access to the benefits of the welfare state should be more limited (if only because the generous European welfare state is no longer affordable). As to the cultural issues, every effort must be made, especially in the educational system, to overcome the segregation of Muslim immigrants in an adversary subculture (no matter whether the segregation is imposed from the outside or sought from within).
I have suggested a sort of “triage” approach to these issues. There are some practices that cannot possibly be tolerated—such as honor killing, genital mutilation, child marriage. Others are clearly not only acceptable but mandated in a democratic society—such as the right to worship freely, including the right to erect houses of worship. In between there is a gray area suitable for negotiation and compromise. Fostering the emergence of a genuinely European Islam will also have policy implications (for example, in the expenditure of public funds), although this emergence must be led and realized from within the Muslim community. I know that I am rather vague on questions of policy. Here as elsewhere, the devil is in the details. This is not the place to go into such details.
The presence of Islam has pushed forward reflection about “European values”, which all newcomers should be required to accept. One can propose various lists, but I have argued that all these values (easily embraced by Americans) can be summed up in one sentence of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany: “The dignity of man is inviolate” (“Die Wuerde des Menschen ist unantastbar”). This dignity pertains to every humanindividual, apart from his or her collective identities. I believe that this is a non-negotiable core principle of Western civilization and its democratic institutions. Muslim civilization has admirable instances of instituting the rights of communities, as in theconvivienca between the Abrahamic faiths in Muslim Spain or in the millet system of the Ottoman empire. Individuals of course benefited by participation in their communities. Muslim criminal and personal law protects a number of individual rights, such as the right to a fair trial or to a fair share of an inheritance. But, as far as I know, Muslim civilization has not recognized the right of individuals against their community. This, I think, should be an important topic for intercultural and interfaith dialogue."
