Islam & Europe: Crises are Challenges

‘European Islam or Islamic Europe’:The Secular State for Negotiating Pluralism

85 ‘euroPean Islam or IslamIc euroPe’: the secular state For negotIatIng PluralIsm Abdullahi Ahmed An-Nàim Introduction The first part of my title is a play of words on the title of John Bowen’s book, Can Islam be French? Pluralism and Pragmatism in a Secularist State1 . Since the book is not available at the time of this writing, I am not presuming in the least to pre-empt or evaluate Professor Bowen’s argument and analysis. Rather, I wish to offer my own personal reflections on the underlying issues and questions, without attempting to respond to Bowen’s analysis or to any of the chapters of the present volume, edited by Marie-Claire Foblets and Jean-Yves Carlier. In particular, I propose to reflect on the appropriate role of the state in the constant negotiation of religious identity, citizenship and pluralism. My point of departure is that it might be instructive to turn the question around to ask, for instance: “Can France, Europe (or any other country or region of the world) be Islamic?” At a basic logical level, this sort of question assumes that there is an agreed or at least identifiable meaning of both sides of the issue, that is, the country or region, on the one hand, and what is Islamic on the other. It is also logically necessary for that meaning of the two sides of the issue to remain at least temporarily stable for the comparison to be applied. That is, we need to have a commonly agreed or accepted understanding of each of the entities we are correlating and the manner of their relationship. This line of inquiry might focus, for instance, on the nature or integrity of the meaning of the two entities being compared, like the quality of being Islamic and the quality of being French or Brazilian, European or Southeast Asian. Questions that follow from that premise include whether there is a fixed or stable meaning of France, Europe, or other country or region, and of Islam? How are such meanings determined, and by whom? What other actors and factors contribute to those determinations at any point in time? The answer to the initial question, for instance, about Islam 1 J. Bowen, Can Islam be French? Pluralism and Pragmatism in a Secularist State, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press. 86 Abdullahi Ahmed An-Nàim and France or Europe, depends on the answer one accepts for a range of other questions. For example, how can the extreme historical and contemporary diversity of understanding and practice of Islam ever be reduced to a single monolithic definition of what is ‘Islamic’ in Denmark or the Netherlands. The framing of the question in terms of, for instance, Islam in Europe, Islam of Europe, or European Islam, has different connotations, and tends to call for different ways of thinking about the issues. In any case, can the question be about Islam, or does it always have to be about particular communities of Muslims, whereby the inquiry would need to be framed in terms of specific location and time-frame? At another level of analysis, one may question the question itself: why and how can one compare or contrast believing in a world religion to having a national or regional identity? Assuming that the comparison can be made, is it conceivable to ask “can Catholicism be French?” Conversely, is it likely that this question will be raised in relation to Christianity and a Muslim-majority country or region, for instance, “can Catholicism be Indonesian?” Indeed, why does Catholicism or Islam need to be French or Indonesian for a person to identity as both a believer in the religion and a citizen of the country? I am raising these questions in the hope of clarifying and opening up the issues for different ways of thinking about religious identity and pluralism. When raised in specific European countries or Western Europe in general, I am concerned that these sorts of questions are not really about Islam as a world religion at all. I wonder whether the real issue in the European context is about the capacity and ability of members of certain visible minorities of immigrant origin who happen to be Muslims are now, or can become, accepted as European by those who appropriate the right to define what being European means. My worry is that such inquiries can easily be manipulated to advance exclusionary, sometimes racist, agenda against a racially and religiously pluralistic Europe. Moreover, while such...