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Christian Science Monitor - November 26, 2004
Europe's Muslim Question
Dutch filmmaker's murder stirs integration debate
March 11 - the day of the Madrid terrorist bombings - unleashed an urgent debate in Europe about law enforcement: how to better track and stop militant Muslims within and across borders.
Nov. 2 - the day provocative Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered allegedly by a Muslim extremist - dramatically pushed that debate into the cultural sphere: how to integrate (or not) Europe's burgeoning Muslim minority.
The killing of the famous painter's great-grandnephew ricocheted around Europe. In the Netherlands, it sparked at least 20 tit-for-tat arson attacks on mosques and churches. In Cologne, Germany, Muslim leaders, horrified by the murder, inspired about 20,000 Turks and Germans to protest violence by and against Muslims. In Brussels last week, European Union justice and interior ministers agreed on a set of nonbinding guidelines that would have immigrants learn the language of their host countries and adopt "European values."
The van Gogh case resonates partly because of the brutality of the killing and the clash of two extremists: a strident filmmaker who referred to Islam as "garbage" and whose recent film denounced the treatment of Muslim women in a way distasteful to many Muslims; and a young Islamic militant with Dutch-Moroccan citizenship who allegedly referred to van Gogh's insults in a note left on the victim.
But beyond this was a perplexing question: How could such a crime occur in one of Europe's most tolerant countries? Where prostitution and marijuana are legal, the motto has been "live and let live."
Perhaps this is the core of the issue, because while the Dutch and the Europeans generally have "let" Muslims live in their countries, they haven't really welcomed them.
Typically, Muslims in Europe lead separate lives. About 500,000 Turks and Moroccans in the Netherlands don't speak Dutch, for instance, and joblessness in some Moroccan communities there approaches 40 percent. Social and civic isolation, along with Europe's secular and sometimes antireligious tradition, provides fertile ground for Muslim militancy.
Quite simply, Europe faces a melting-pot challenge. While the US has had centuries to work at this problem, it's being suddenly thrust upon the Europeans. Governments are responding with a two-pronged approach: Identify and expel Muslim radicals, but orchestrate the integration of mainstream Muslims. Germany's new immigration law, for instance, follows the French example by making it easier to observe and deport Islamic extremists. At the same time, the new law sets up German language and civics classes for immigrants.
A flurry of laws - many of them disturbing to American sensibilities to rights - are also being suggested. The Dutch parliament has asked the government to draft a law that would require imams employed by Dutch mosques to study in the Netherlands. The head of Germany's Protestant church says German should be used in mosques. An imam in Denmark wants the kind of anti-Islamic speech used by van Gogh to be restricted.
Governments must carefully balance civic and cultural integration. Having immigrants take a civics course and respect the rule of law is a reasonable expectation. But Europeans play with fire if they think they can Europeanize Islamic culture and many religious practices. What would Catholics, for instance, say if Latin were outlawed at a mass?
Europe's governments may try to promote integration, but people-to-people contact will help Muslims to really feel at home. In the Dutch town of Den Bosch, Muslims were on the right track by recently inviting non-Muslims to a festival….
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1126/p08s02-comv.html
Christian Post – November 27, 2004
Bishops condemn any tendency
to label Islam as promoting violence
In lieu of the rising fear of fundamental Islam in Europe, Anglican and Old Catholic Bishops in the continent’s mainland released a statement calling for dialogue and against the vilification of any religion. The statement was penned during the bishops’ conference in Wislikhaven, Switzerland, on Nov. 17-19, 2004.
Tension between Islamic and non-Islamic population has always existed within European society. However, following the killing of Dutch filmmaker Theo von Gogh on Nov. 2 by a Dutch-Moroccan Islamist in the Netherlands and subsequent attacks on mosques and churches across the country, nearby nations have been on high alert.
The bishops’ statement took note that at times, “comments by journalists and politicians with respect to this development have given the impression that among the non-Islamic population a radical Christian "fundamentalism" -- or even Christendom as such -- is at work as a counterpart to a radical Islamic "fundamentalism", and which is equally open to the use of violence.”
Ultimately, the bishops said they reject “all such characterizations in whatever from they are presented.”
The following is the entire statement of the bishops, are released by the Anglican Communion News Service:
The Anglican and Old Catholic Bishops in mainland Europe, during our Conference in Wislikhaven, Switzerland, 17-19 November 2004, have observed with great concern that, in a number of countries in central and western Europe, tensions have risen between the Islamic and non-Islamic populations, provoked by a number of acts of violence.
Many comments by journalists and politicians with respect to this development have given the impression that among the non-Islamic population a radical Christian "fundamentalism" -- or even Christendom as such -- is at work as a counterpart to a radical Islamic "fundamentalism", and which is equally open to the use of violence.
The Bishops reject all such characterizations in whatever form they are presented. Since at least the end of the Second World War, European churches represented in ecumenical bodies in central and western Europe have never furthered a radical Christian "fundamentalism" which has preached violence or permitted it to be preached. On the contrary, the churches have supported and encouraged a continuing dialogue with non-Christian religions, which has often led to positive results. Moreover, the Bishops also condemn any tendency to label Islam as such as a religion that promotes violence.
Journalists and politicians have a responsibility to be more conscious of what they say in their comments or write in their reports. Over-simplified depictions, which may convey such a false opposition, whether conscious or merely careless, do not contribute to the goal of peaceful coexistence, and at worst, they create new divisions.
Signed
The Most Revd Joris Vercammen
Archbishop of Utrecht, Co-chair
The Rt Revd Dr Geoffrey Rowell
Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, Co-chair
http://www.christianpost.com/dbase/church/1671/section/1.htm
Muslims in Germany march against terror
BERLIN, Nov. 21, 2004 (Xinhuanet) -- Over 20,000 Muslims took part in a demonstration in western Germany on Sunday to protest against terrorism and violence in the world.
Demonstrators holding national flags of the Turkey, Germany and the flag of the European Union marched through the downtown of Cologne.
"We are against terrorism of any form, "Terrorism is crime on the humankind," banners with slogans were to seen everywhere in the march.
This was one of the largest demonstrations of Muslims in Germany's history.
"Terrorism has either a religion or a nationality," said chairman of the Turkish-Islamic Union Ridvan Cakir, who also organized the demonstration.
The Islam is a religion of peace and terrorism should not be justified in the name of the Islamic belief, he noted.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-11/21/content_2244315.htm
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