One Europe: Why so much islamophobia in Europe?

Why so much islamophobia in Europe? 

It’s the egg and the chicken: as the first generation of north-African workers came to France and Turks to Germany, they had work, but were not necessarily accepted socially. But that generation made efforts to integrate and get accepted – like all the other foreign workers: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, etc. The Arab world was also trying to move into the 21st century, with leaders experimenting with lay society and even, sometimes, socialism.

Hamas

The growth of radical Islam has been successful in driving a wedge between muslims and the rest of the world – which was exactly what they wanted. It has been a long-term strategy and a very successful one: make sure that muslims are totally dedicated to their religion and don’t mix with the infidels. Hijabs and niqabs are not important as a muslim fashion statement – women wear all sorts of weird and wonderful things and that’s part of the fun in our society – but they are very important as a religious and political statement – and that’s why they cause so much controversy and rejection among the lay Europeans. Terrorism – bombs and attacks – have not helped either: Paris, London, Madrid – just mention a few, have caused victims but, worse of all, have caused a powerful backlash against muslims and suspicion. Again part of the successful Islamist strategy: drive a wedge between the western society and the muslims living in it. So, is it Europeans (or, more broadly, westerners) rejecting muslims or is it muslims making sure that they have a special, separate place in our society? And when you have a special place, it’s only a step away from NO place – which would be unfair and dramatic for the millions of decent, hardworking muslims living all over Europe. But it’s up to the decent, hardworking muslims to isolate the fanatics in their midst and expel them, if they don’t want to be tarred with the same brush.

I don’t think that calling every person who has concerns about radical Islam ignorant is the solution. Radical Islam or, for that matter, all fundamentalist religious movements, can create problems in a society – and they often do. It so happens that a lot of terrorist acts have been committed in the name of radical Islam around the world, including in our European societies, which is a real concern for a lot of people. Sweeping the whole problem under the carpet, instead of discussing it openly and dealing with it, only favours the extreme right wing movements, while allowing radical Islamists to carry on spreading their poison – as both sides reinforce each other. Marine Le Pen and her friends just love it when we ignore problems, so that they can drag them out and scare people with real or invented issues. We defend democracy by discussing problems and dealing with them, not pretending that we are all angels and problems don’t exist.

UA-2750533-1