Whither European Islam? Muslims in the Balkans and in Western Europe Compared more

Ina Merdjanova Ina Merdjanova is a Marie Curie Fellow at the Irish School of Ecumenics/Trinity College Dublin. She previously served as director of the Center for Interreligious Dialogue and Conflict Prevention at the Scientific Research Department of Sofia University, Bulgaria (2004–2010). She received her PhD from Sofia University, and has held visiting fellowships at oxford University and other institutions in the UK, the Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, and the USA. She is the author and editor of six books in Bulgarian as well as of a monograph in English entitled Religion, Nationalism, and Civil Society in Eastern Europe – The Postcommunist Palimpsest (Edwin Mellen Press, 2002). Dr. Merdjanova has recently published a co-authored manuscript with Patrice Brodeur of Montreal University Religion as a Conversation Starter: Interreligious dialogue for Peacebuilding in the Balkans (Continuum, 2009), and is currently completing a book on Islam in the Balkans. Contact: ina.merdjanova@gmail.com “My spell at NIAS as a Visiting Grant Scholar (Spring 2006) gave an important boost to my book project on Muslim communities in the Balkans after the fall of communism. I was able to concentrate on my research in an international academic setting of high standing and to profit from the exchange of ideas with other fellows. NIAS provided me with an unforgettable experience, combining peaceful retreat, idyllic scenery, and a stimulating social environment.” 33 Whither European Islam? Muslims in the Balkans and in Western Europe Compared Muslim presence in Europe has been growing steadily over the last decades. According to estimates, about 15 million Muslims live in Western Europe today. They began arriving from the 1950s onwards, largely from former colonies. Thus Muslims in France are mainly immigrants from North Africa, while those in the UK come mostly from South Asia. In Germany, Muslims arrived as “guest workers” during the post-war economic boom, mainly from Turkey. In the Netherlands, Muslims are predominantly of Moroccan and Turkish origin. When speaking about Islam in Europe, many people often forget that Southeast Europe has been home to Muslim communities for more than six centuries. The ottoman conquest of the Balkan peninsula during the 14th-15th centuries led to a massive expansion of Islam in this part of the world, achieved by the influx of Turkic-speaking populations on the one hand, and by the gradual conversion of parts of the local Slavic population on the other. Today, some 8.4 million Muslims live in different countries throughout the Balkan region. Muslims in Western Europe and those in the Balkans differ enormously between themselves (and within each group) according to their historical, geographic, ethnic, and linguistic background, as well as in terms of their cultural and ideological diversification. The Balkan Muslims are a predominantly rural population, with larger urban groups present mostly in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo. They experienced the communist oppression of religion and the post-communist revival of their religious and cultural traditions. Today, they are relatively well integrated and are represented both politically (through various parties in the different Balkan 35 36 Ina Merdjanova countries) and culturally (through numerous associations and organizations). Geographically, they are distributed rather unevenly, the largest community being that in Albania (around 2,300,000) and the smallest that in Croatia (about 60,000). Linguistically, Balkan Muslims are divided into Albanian-speakers (4,355,000), Slavic-speakers (2,635,000), Turkish-speakers (1,040,000), and Roma (300,000) (Bougarel 2005: 7–8). Most of the Balkan Muslims are Sunni and follow the Hanafi madhhab (school of law), while Sufi Islam has also been represented through a number of tariqas (religious brotherhoods), such as Bektashiyya, Naqshbandiyya, Khalwatiyya, Qadiriyya, Rifa‘iyya, among others. Important developments since the collapse of communism include a radical redefinition and reshaping of the relations between the Muslim communities and the post-communist nation-states in the region. In Bulgaria, as a result of the restrictions and the oppression of the communist regime, the primary identity focus for the ethnic Turkish minority (which is the largest Muslim group in the country, followed by the Roma and the Slavic-speaking Muslims) shifted from religion to ethnicity. While this trend has been challenged after 1989, it has remained generally steady. Bulgaria successfully reversed its communist-time assimilation of its Muslim population. Muslims experienced a revival of their spiritual and cultural practices, alongside their active participation in the political life of the country. In Albania, religious diversity (represented by Sunni and Bektashi Muslims, and by orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians) has prevented the endorsement of national projects based on religion. Albania’s citizens of Muslim background rediscovered their religious faith after the harsh communist regime broke up, yet this hardly amounted to any re-Islamization of this country with its 70% Muslim population. Albanian ethno-national identity remained an overarching and almost sacred canopy, downplaying or powerfully remolding identifications along religious lines. Muslims in Bosnia experienced the destructiveness of war and ethnic cleansing after the republic proclaimed independence from the former Yugoslav Federation in 1992, and struggled with the post-war reconstruction after the signing of the Dayton’s peace accords in 1995. Whither European Islam? Muslims in the Balkans and ... 37 They have been actively engaged in the building of a Bosniak nation on the basis of Islam. The war undoubtedly triggered, at least for a certain period of time, a re-Islamization and solidarity of the Bosnian Muslims with the Islamic world. It is worth mentioning, however, that the war in Kosovo in 1998/99 did not produce a similar result for the Albanian Muslims in the province, who remained overwhelmingly focused on their ethnic identity. Western European Muslims are urban populations; they are post-colonial groups, except for the Turks. They come from various continents and belong to different ethnic and national groups, which also defines the linguistic and cultural differences among them, including their affiliation to different Islamic schools of law. Their economic and social integration as well as political representation in the public space of their host countries remain fairly poor. Moreover, recent surveys reveal a growing degree of intolerant and discriminating attitudes toward Muslim immigrants. Concerns about demography and social cohesion have figured highly in the mass imagination, fueled by alarmist talks by some intellectuals and politicians about Europe becoming “Eurabia”, a colony of Islam. Muslims in Europe have been suspected of being loyal to foreign Islamic agendas, of being influenced by Islamic networks and supported by foreign funds. And, since September 11 and the bombings in Madrid and London, Muslims in Europe have been increasingly perceived as a major security threat. Since 2001, the number of arrested terrorist suspects in various EU countries has been much greater than in the US. Both observant Christians and nonbelievers in Europe, have, for different reasons, often viewed Muslims’ expression of religious beliefs and symbols in the public space as particularly problematic. Numerous controversies evolved around the building of mosques, Muslim education, and the wearing of hijab. Notwithstanding variations, both the Balkan and West European Muslims are involved in the processes of European integration, on the one hand, and globalization, on the other. The European context has prompted attempts at elaborating a concept of a European Islam which seeks to define what being a Muslim in Europe actually means. Although those attempts have been neither concerted nor systematic, they indicate an emerging struggle over who is to speak on behalf of the European Muslims. 38 Ina Merdjanova Indeed, the notion of a European Islam has been increasingly recurrent in the political vocabulary in all parts of Europe. Still far from being sufficiently conceptualized, it is becoming a working idea, especially with regard to continuous efforts for the accommodation and institutionalization of Islam throughout the old Continent. It has often been perceived by various European governments as a potentially unifying project which might redress the failure of the two dominant European approaches in dealing with immigrants (assimilation in France and multiculturalism in Northern Europe). Moreover, the advancement of this project is often seen as bringing about representative institutions of the Muslim populations, which could compensate for the lack of a centralized authority in Islam and with which matters of mutual interest can be negotiated. There also exists the expectation that the institutionalization of Islam would assure better transparency regarding funds channeled to Muslim communities and associations from abroad. Many Western European Muslims view the construction of a European Islam as an important step toward social integration, particularly in the face of widespread hostility and prejudice. The second and third generation of Muslims, who are European by birth yet often profoundly different from the largely secular European environment, struggle with the need for a new self-definition. The project of a European Islam, however vague and undeveloped right now, seeks to construct a positive image of Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance — countering post-September 11 suspicion of Muslims as terrorists and the attendant large scale fears of Islam. Moreover, it carries the hope that European citizens of Islamic faith can mediate between “East” and “West”, serving as brokers of peace and reconciliation. Balkan Muslim leaders and theologians have claimed a representative status for “their” Islam, a centuries-old presence on European soil. They often perceive the discourse of a European Islam as an opportunity for enhanced recognition of Muslims’ historical presence in Europe. As far back as the 19th century, the Muslim elite in the region sought to formulate a “local Islam”, compatible with Western modernity. Today, the well-institutionalized Bosnian Islamic Community has played a key role in promoting the positive image of Balkan Islam as a model Whither European Islam? Muslims in the Balkans and ... 39 for Muslims in Europe, and its leader, Mustafa Ceric, has been actively involved in various pan-European Muslim organizations. In 2006, Ceric devised and circulated a “Declaration of European Muslims”, which names Europe “the house of Peace and Security based on the principle of Social Contract” and highlights European Muslims’ commitments to the rule of law, tolerance, democracy and human rights. The Declaration has been widely distributed, both in the EU and the Islamic world, but has not yet made much of an impact. Despite the attractiveness of the idea of a European Islam, there seem to be various obstacles to putting it into practice. First, as already noted, the cultural and socio-economic differences between the Balkan Muslims and those living in Western Europe are vast. Moreover, the considerable fragmentation along ethnic, national, and also sectarian lines among various Muslim groups in both parts of Europe is hardly conducive to the construction of an all-European Muslim identity. Second, there are few systematic interconnections between Muslim communities in Europe, especially with the absence of socio-politically influential pan-European Islamic organizations. Third, some writers and policy-makers have expressed concerns about a potential political appropriation of an institutionalized Islam by Muslim radicals in Europe, who tend to have better organizational skills as well as means to impose their agenda on the rest of the Muslim population. These concerns are obviously to be taken into consideration, before a further promotion of the project. Last, but not least, a European Islam obviously needs a clearly defined background European identity in relation to which it can be build. The “Declaration on European Identity” (1973) refers to “the diversity of cultures within the framework of a common European civilization, the attachment to common values and principles, the increasing convergence of attitudes to life, the awareness of having specific interests in common and the determination to take part in the construction of a United Europe”. The emphasis on a common historical and cultural heritage as a basis for the construction of a European identity, however, needs further elaboration and specification, especially with regard to the pivotal socio-political developments since the issue of the Declaration, such as the fall of communism, the EU enlargement 40 Ina Merdjanova eastwards, and particularly the growing Muslim presence on European soil. otherwise the so-called “European identity” would remain vague and indistinct, unable to produce a convincing answer to questions such as what constitutes “Europe”, or where the borders of “Europe” lie. Some authors have argued that the idea of Europe was constructed in the Middle Ages in opposition to Islam. Höfert and Salvatore, for example, noted the impact of the “Turkish threat” on the cultural and intellectual innovations of Renaissance Europe from the 15th century onwards. The ottoman conquest of Southeast Europe was interpreted as a danger to the whole Christian world out of which the self-definition of unitas christiana appeared (Höfert & Salvatore 2000: 21, 26). Certainly, today’s politicized recycling of historical perceptions about Europe’s incompatibility with Islam is hardly conducive to a productive resolution of the ongoing debates about the place of Muslims in Europe as well as about the Turkish membership in the EU. For the time being, the question of whether European Islam will remain a talismanic sketch, will be altogether dismantled, or will be turned into a coherent, feasible and commanding program, is still far from clear. one thing is certain, however, and that is that Islam and Muslims are not external and alien to Europe. Europe has a considerable “indigenous” Muslim population in its southeast part, and communities that have developed effective models of societal integration. Aspects of these models, with the appropriate adjustments, can be utilized in West European policies dealing with Islam. on a more general note, today’s Europe faces the task of reconceptualizing itself, taking seriously into consideration the multi-faceted contribution of Islam, both past and present, to its self-understanding. Moreover, Europe needs to urgently resolve the issue of the integration of its Muslim populations. Certainly, as Casanova (2008: 72) has aptly pointed out, the way in which Europe resolves this issue, as well as the adjacent question of Turkey’s accession to the EU, will determine not only its civilizational identity but also its role in the emerging global order. Whither European Islam? Muslims in the Balkans and ... 41 References Bougarel, Xavier (2005). The role of Balkan Muslims in Building a European Islam. EPC Issue Paper No. 43. Casanova, Jose (2008). “The problem of religion and the anxieties of European secular democracy”. In: Motzkin, Gabriel & Yochi Fischer (eds.). Religion and Democracy in Contemporary Europe. London: Alliance Publishing Trust, 63–74. Declaration on European Identity. In: Bulletin of the European Communities. December 1973, N. 12, 118–122, online: http://www.ena.lu/. Höfert, Almut & Armando Salvatore. “Beyond the Clash of Civilizations: Transcultural Politics between Europe and Islam”. In: Höfert, Almut & Armando Salvatore (eds.) (2000). Between Europe and Islam: Shaping Modernity in a Transcultural Space. Bruxelles: P.I.E.-Lang, 13–38.