Seminars, Conferences, Addresses 

Symposium on Muslims in Europe 
The Institute for Comparative Social Research 

and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany 
&jab 3-5; 1412Februury 6-8, l99.2 

The question of a Muslim minority in the Western context has become an 
important one in view of some h-and-hysteria literatu~ that continues to depict 
this minority as a threat to Western liberal values and sociopolitical systems. 
The conference papers were structured around a basic theme of “Muslims, Islam, 
and Diaspora,” which reveals the difficulty of European scholars as well as 
government officials in accurately conceptualizing the Muslim experience of 
immigration in the West. 

To be sure, there is no concept of an eschatological ”promised land” or “holy 
land” in the Qur’an to suggest “diaspora” - the dispersion of its adherents from 
it - even in the remotest sense of the term. The entire earth, according to the 
Qur’an, belongs to God and has been created for humanity to seek its own 
advancement towards the moral and spiritual goals wherever it so chooses, as 
long as no injustices are committed against fellow humans beings. The concept 
of dZir al hijrah, on the other hand, captures the spirit of Muslim emigration 
to the West. It is a journey undertaken to overcome spiritual and moral 
“homelessness,” a physical transferral to the sphere which holds out the promise 
of deviatiog the unfavorable conditions prevalent in one’s awn place of domicile. 
To this early meaning of emigration (hijrah) of a person from a particular place 
or set of surroundings to seek protection is added emigration for the sake of 
economic advantage, either temporanly or permanently, somewhere else. In other 
words, for Muslims this sphere of emigration is not what Europe wants to 
perceive, namely, a “diaspora” that would make them endeavor to return from 
the “diaspora” to their “holy land” located somewhere in Arabia. 

Apart from this lack of conceptual clarity in categorizing the Muslims’ 
perception of their spatial relationship in the West, European scholars and 
administrators are faced with another difficulty. This was discussed by Reinhard 
Schulze following his paper on ”International Organization and Muslims in 
Europe.” Schulze pointed out the inadequacy with which Europe defines the word 
“religion” and then imposes it on Islam, expecting to discover a central Islamic 
“church” headed by a Muslim “bishop” with whom the government can establish 
administrative relations. Even more difficult for homogenous European nations 
like France, where the majority is Catholic, is to recognize the existence of other 
“religions“ besides Christianity for administrative purposes. This difficulty is 
self-created, because such recognition entails empowering the followers of other 



274 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 9:2 

traditions and making the necessary constitutional changes to accommodate new 
exigencies created by the rising power of the Muslim minority. The “church- 
state” distinction and separation in the American constitution that has made things 
easier and kr more manageable vis-‘a-vis the rights of religious minorities in 
that country is virtually nonexistent in European national and political culture. 
This does not mean that Europe refuses to recognize the existence of minorities 
within its homogenous population; it just simply does not have the constitutional 
mschanism to integrate the Muslim minority as part of its sociopolitical universe. 

Jeroen Doomemik (Holland) and Ake Sander (Sweden) provided a survey 
of the constitutional measures by which the integration of Muslims into these 
two countries has been handled. They also mentioned that some citizens, who 
view accommodation as a “threat” to their “homogeneous” existence, have 
opposed these measures. Pieter Sjoerd van Koningsveld (Holland) provided a 
perceptive picture of the problems faced by European constitutions seeking to 
facilitate the integration process in his well-researched paper on “Imams and 
Islamic Holidays in Dutch Jurisprudence and Rlitical Discussions: Tho Aspects 
of an Unfinished Integration Process.” It is pertinent to point out here that one 
of the great difficulties European governments face in giving due recognition 
to Muslim holidays is the lunar calendar. The existence of this difficulty, in spite 
of the scientific data available to determine Muslim holidays in advance (at least 
annually), is a sad state of affairs in this day and age. In the aftermath of the 
Rushdie affair (1988) and the Gulf War (1991), Muslims in Europe (after the 
Bmdford affhir of England and their seemingly wholehearted support for Saddam 
Hussein, whether actual or perceived, as reported in the Western media) are 
more or less viewed as a menace to the liberal democratic values of the West. 
This prejudicial treatment of the Muslim minority has had repercussions in acts 
of violence against them in many parts of Europe. 

The conference devoted a great deal of time to practical issues connected 
with the full integration of Muslims in the West. A basic concern expressed by 
the delegates was that there is a conspicuous absence of central religious 
leadership among Muslims. The religious leadership provided by the imams in 
the home countries is both intellectually and socially ill-equipped to direct the 
adjustment of Muslims in their newly adopted social universe. Sander raised 
the possibility of founding an Islamic university in Europe that would instruct 
the new religious leaders on how to guide Muslim integration in the Western 
environment. In fact, this appeared to be the proposal of the Institute’s director, 
Jochen Blaschke, who believes that training imams in the West would alleviate 
the self-imposed alienation perpetuated by imams coming from the Islamic world. 

The other important issue was Islamic religious education in the public 
education system. Felice Dassetto (Belgium) gave an overview of the ways in 
which the Belgian government had integrated Islamic education in its school 
system and provides a state budget for the program. Such an integmtion was unique 



Seminars, Conferences, Addresses 275 

to Belgium; Germany is still debating the issue. Perhaps the issue that was on 
the minds of every delegate was the Muslims’ mction, at times violent, to political 
upheavals in their native countries and the inability of European governments 
to find local Muslim leaders, rather than Middle Eastern ambassadors, who could 
help them sort out the Muslim minoity’s political and related problems. 

Among the academics, there was a genuine concern to create better 
opportunities for Muslims in the Christian world. This concern was reflected 
in the presentation by Christoph Elsas and Claire de Galembert. 

The most useful and hotly debated sessions were the panels on Friday and 
Saturday evenings. On Friday evening Barbara John (Senate Secretary for 
Foreigners’ Affairs of Germany) appeared with Yahya Schulske (Islamic 
Federation), Reinhard Schulz (Islamic Studies Department, Ruhr University, 
Bochum), and Mehmet Ozmen (Turkish Islamic Union) to discuss “Politics and 
Religion in Diaspora Islam.” Many of the above-mentioned issues were voiced 
by Muslim participants and were answered judiciously by Ms. John. On Saturday 
evening, Christoph Elsas (theologian), Emine Demirbuken (Consultant for 
Foreigner’s Affairs, Schoneberg), and Salim N. Abdullah (Islamic Archives, 
Soest) appeared on the panel “Perspectives of Multicultural Policy: Islam, 
Christianity and Secularized Culture.” This was the time to consider the culture 
war that is going on across the Western world, including North America, to define 
the values and future direction of the next generation of world citizens. 

Besides some interesting papers on the spread of the Ahmadiyya movement 
in Europe, one oddity in the conference was the presence of the Ahmadiyya sect 
leaders and their continuous efforts at “preaching” and “converting” others to 
their version of Islam. Even more strange was the paper on “Bahai in Diaspora.” 
What connection the Bahais have with a Muslim minority in Europe was not 
clear, to me at least. Other papers dealt with the relations between Islam and 
Christianity, Isma‘ilis in Great Britain, and Islamic movements in Hungary. 

The symposium was very important in that it covered a wide variety of topics 
related to the questions of immigration, ethnicity, Muslim-owned businesses, 
perspectives on multicultural policy, and so on. It was also beneficial as regards 
the exchange of views between conference participants, both at the conference 
and at other times during the three days, and the general audience. Hamid Algar 
was, unfortunately, unable to present his paper on “The Religion of Islam in 
Diaspo~a,~ which was to include a statement on Islam in North America. However, 
in my lecture on “Islam, Muslims and Diaspora,” I covered the common ground 
shared by all Muslims in the West, including North America. 

Abdulaziz Sachedina 
Dept. of Religious Studies 
University of Virginia 
Charlottesville, Virginia