Can a European Islam emerge?

[Diable Rouge]

Following the recent Macron speech condemning "Islamic separatism" and calling for an effective Reformation of that religion, a group of moderate European Muslim scholars have penned a response, indicating their support for integration into European society, abhorrence of extremism, and respect for the underlying principles motivating the creation of the European Union, all the while condemning the appeals to nationalist sentiment, and ignorance of the root causes of ghettoisation that has occurred throughout the West. The Irish imam, Muhammad Al-Qadri, embodies such principles, working to integrate his community into Irish society, but at the same time, trying to promote a liberal vision of Islam, but can such idealism prevail not just throughout the European ummah, but also in terms of the political response to the religion?

[Hot Pepsi]

I don't see why it can't work out in the long run.

The US has its first Islamic liberal arts college, Zaytuna. I suspect that is an important milestone in this kind of "western" Islam.

[Sam]

I'd have thought 'Can European governments stop being enormously Islamophobic?' would be a better thread title. Implicitly focusing on the European ummah not (in your opinion?) being enthusiastic enough about integrating just perpetuates one of the main problems, IMO.

[ad hoc]

Exactly.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Macron can go fuck himself with his racist bullshit. As can the idea of "a European x" meaning something good.

[ad hoc]

Ok, so I read your post, DR, with a mounting sense of dismay at what seemed like a very racist framing (for the absence of doubt, I don't for a moment think you're a racist, but the way this post was framed, including the title, was quite troubling for many reasons). Anyway, I have now read the linked letter which is I think interesting and worth debating (I get that this was your intention all along, and the clumsy framing of the debate was just that - clumsy).

The primary problem with modern Europe and its relationship with Islam (clearly there has for centuries been a "European Islam" - just go to Cordoba, or Sarajevo, or P?cs, or Constanța, or Tirana, or Plovdiv, or Istanbul, or...well, i could go on), is the fear and loathing towards those communities rather than a problem with the communities themselves. FWIW I think the letter is very good, and it's rejection of Macron's speech is clear and well founded. The way Muslims in Europe are treated (in the politics, in the media, in the public sphere) is frighteningly analogous to the way that Jews were similarly demonised and attacked across the continent in the 1930s. A point that the letter brings up

Proposing as a solution a law that can dissolve associations, educate children, finance an “Islam des Lumieres” to awaken patriotism and force republican love seems to us to be preparing a new edition of the racial laws of the last century which implemented a series of rules against the Jewish community in Italy and Germany, with a very similar mentality and short-sightedness.

(indeed those who would seek to downplay Islamophobia and stress it's difference from anti-Semitism (prior to the foundation of Israel) constantly claim that the difference is that European Muslims have other places to go unlike European Jews in the 30s - which is true, but a really deeply unpleasant argument which appears to promote ethnic cleansing - Macron seems to want to have this both ways, asking that European Muslims sacrifice their identity and simultaneously reject those countries from which they or their ancestors hail. This is, I realise, a very French argument)

Macron's pillars (ffs 5 pillars. Does he think that's funny or clever?) simply seem to attack the victims of structural racism and demand that they integrate rather than the primary change needs to come from the Republic itself. I get that he tried to insert some conciliatory language elsewhere in his speech, but fucking hell, it was godawful.

In short, if in an open and tolerant continent which fully embraces its minority populations, European Muslims choose to isolate themselves, then there might be a debate of this sort to be had. But we don't live in that continent, we live in this one.

[Nefertiti2]

in fact what we have had- for various internal political reasons -is a very well funded Wahhabi Saudi Islam which has become increasingly influential in Europe and elsewhere.

[Felicity, I guess so]

The other thing about Macron’s law and his rhetoric since the teacher’s murder is that (especially given his deep unpopularity) it will ultimately benefit Le Pen