There is an anti-Muslim wind blowing across the European continent. One factor is a perception that Muslims are making politically exceptional, culturally unreasonable or theologically alien demands upon European states. My contention is that the claims Muslims are making in fact parallel comparable arguments about gender or ethnic equality. Seeing the issue in this context shows how inescapably European and contemporary is the logic of mainstream Muslim identity politics.
Muslims in Europe: a question of belonging
European anxieties and phobias in relation to immigration and cultural diversity focus on Muslims more than any other group. This however begs the question: in what way are Muslims a group and to whom are they being compared? Here I can do no more than note that there is no satisfactory way of defining those people of non-European descent whom Canadians call ‘visible minorities’, and therefore no way of listing the constituent groups that make up this category. Nevertheless, it is clear that the estimated 15 million people in Europe who are subjectively or objectively Muslim, whatever their additional identities, form the single largest group of those who are the source of public anxieties.
Muslims are not, however, a homogeneous group. Some Muslims are devout but apolitical; some are political but do not see their politics as being ‘Islamic’ (indeed, may even be anti-Islamic). Some identify more with a nationality of origin, such as Turkish; others with the nationality of settlement and perhaps citizenship, such as French. Some prioritise fund-raising for mosques, others campaigns against discrimination, unemployment or Zionism. For some, the Ayatollah Khomeini is a hero and Osama bin Laden an inspiration; for others, the same may be said of Kemal Ataturk or even Margaret Thatcher (who helped create a swathe of Asian millionaires in Britain, brought in Arab capital and was one of the first to call for Nato action to protect Muslims in Bosnia).
