On Faith: Europe and Islam: Beyond Minarets

Minneapolis. MN (December 1, 2009) - As a regularly featured blogger on the Washington Post/Newsweek's "On Faith" blog, Dr. Aseem Shukla, member of HAF's Board of Directors, has the opportunity to provide a Hindu viewpoint on various issues.  Below is Dr. Shukla's latest blog. Please post your comments directly on the "On Faith" site by clicking here.

 

Four minarets come up in Switzerland and a national identity stands challenged? Incredible that a national referendum even made it to the ballot to ban an outward symbol that the Swiss must believe does not square with the idyllic Swiss postcard of church steeples nestled among cozy villages set amidst snow capped peaks. This was an exercise in national denial that, yes, Muslims, live and worship there.

More than anything, the ban exposes the gross underbelly of Europe's vaunted liberalism, and the failure of continental Muslims to successfully complete their societal integration. European values of progressive policies, cradle to grave government safety nets, socialism, liberal immigration policies--all have failed to grow truly pluralistic and democratic polities. Overt racism and persecution of the Roma, Africans, South Asians and even other Europeans is obvious to even the casual tourist, and the immigrant populated ghettoes, slums and tenements are just as hard to miss.

 

While sops of financial aid are doled out to new immigrants, the most basic symbol of acceptance--citizenship--is too often denied to most. In short, the members of the European Union talked a big talk of welcoming the oppressed and open arms, but really were unprepared and unwilling to treat the new arrivals as equal peers. Mohammed is now among the most common baby names in Europe today, and the Europeans are in denial. 

 

Muslims, meanwhile, must introspect as to what happened to their European dream. Challenged by misadventures in extremism and terror, overreactions to a Danish cartoonist and loud misogynes, Muslims are buffeted now by a harsh referendum.

 

Hindus in Uganda suffered a forced exodus under the despotic regime of Idi Amin, and the retrospective consensus is that one of several factors was their tendency to recuse themselves from the rest of the community. They lived amongst their own and essentially failed to engage their new home outside of India. Vacating the national dialogue allowed their demonization and inexcusable cleansing.

 

Muslims must use the bitter results of the referendum to stimulate a reawakening and reassessment. Hold on to the best of their spiritual heritage, but accept the gender equality, liberty and tolerance of their new Europeans home. Privilege contemporary voices of Islam that speak loudly of values in consort with the best of the modern world.

 

The minaret feud, I hope, will begin a conversation long overdue between Europe and Islam. Not even Switzerland can afford to remain neutral now.