A world Without Islam pdfdrive com

particularly as reflected in unemployment rates. Unemployment among Muslims
is considerably higher than among non-Muslims. In the Netherlands, 31 percent
of Moroccans and 24 percent of Turks are unemployed. More disturbingly, in
1995 unemployment rates for Muslim youth were twice that of nonimmigrants at
the same level of education. In the UK, Bangladeshi and Pakistani immigrants
had triple the unemployment rate of nonimmigrants, and in the inner cities,
nearly half of the Bangladeshis are unemployed. Worse, “this marginality is
passed on to the generations born and educated in Great Britain.”
The problem is self-reinforcing because working class and poorly educated
Muslims are not easily able to assimilate or even engage in European culture; as

---

a result, they feel marginalized, are viewed as outsiders, often feel alienated, and
retreat into their own cultural shell, thereby reinforcing stereotypes of Muslim
resistance to assimilation. Resentments grow and the symbolism of different
clothing, food, and language become more emotive on both sides. The
Netherlands may represent one of the most serious examples of this problem. A
Dutch parliamentary report in 2004 determined that “multiethnic society had
been a dismal failure, huge ethnic ghettos and subcultures were tearing the
country apart and the risk of polarization could only be countered by Muslims
effectively becoming Dutch.” This is a depressing conclusion since the proposed
solution—“Muslims… becoming Dutch”—is ill-defined. What does it mean to
become “Dutch”? To be indistinguishable from traditional Dutch citizens, except
for visible physical characteristics? Or entirely stripped clean of former
linguistic and cultural characteristics of their original homelands? Or are there
certain minimal “Dutch” characteristics that should be required, while others
not? Judging by patterns in any number of countries, assimilation is a process
that requires several generations even for serious acculturation to occur, let alone
actual assimilation.
Yet Islam is not directly relevant to the problem either, since any uneducated
group of workers of color from the developing world pose similar problems of
assimilation. Nonetheless, we cannot dismiss the Islamic factor entirely out of
hand either, due to a striking social factor that has now appeared among them:
the emergence of a new identity as European Muslims. Algerian, Turkish, or
Pakistani immigrants with direct ties to their countries of origin have now given
way in the first generation in Europe to an entirely new “Muslim identity”—
quite distinct from an ethnicity based on original national origin. This Muslim
identity comes as a direct response to their loosening ties with their countries of
origin—the now distant and irrelevant culture of their parents. A Muslim identity
provides a common link across ethnic lines, with shared social experiences
including discrimination as new minorities in Europe. This young generation is
European-born, speaks European languages natively, is schooled in Europe. And
yet they are alienated and marginalized for socioeconomic reasons and now turn
to “Islam” as a new interethnic identity in the absence of any other one that
works for them. Their turn to an Islamic identity, however, creates suspicions in
a post-religious Europe.
The crisis is a two-way street. As a result of its immigration dilemma, Europe
is now in the middle of an identity crisis of its own, painfully reassessing the
whole process of facing globalization and de facto multiculturalism. The
violence of the broader Middle East does not involve the Muslim population in
Europe in most cases, but all it takes is a handful of violent incidents involving

---

Euro-Muslims in Europe to whip up yet deeper European fears of Islam—that in
turn reinforces the immigrants’ Muslim identity. It is potentially a vicious cycle.
Is the adoption of a new nonethnic “Muslim” identity a step forward toward
broader assimilation? Or a step toward reinforcement of a new social solidarity
that will be harder to eventually assimilate?
European worries about assimilation processes are not without foundation.
Muslims may, in fact, now be one of the more difficult cultural groups to fully
absorb, precisely because of the inherent long-standing strength of that culture,
its pride and historical self-consciousness, and its strong resolve to protect
Islamic culture and the community. Beyond that, Islam would seem to add a
certain new social strength to these first-generation migrants that enables them to
better weather the hardships of the assimilation process.
Today, the question is more about retaining a “Muslim” identity than it is an
ethnic or even linguistic one. One may happily learn Dutch and work within
Dutch society but not want to give up being Muslim. Complete assimilation is no
longer a viable concept for most non-Western minorities if it means becoming
culturally indistinguishable from Dutch, that is, with a total loss of original
culture. The issue is how to be both Dutch and Muslim, surely not an impossible
feat. If it means accepting Dutch civic values, being upright citizens, willing