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Guest Editor's Note
Talip KÜÇÜKCAN
Migration and settlement of Turks and Muslims in Europe since the 1960s
irrevocably changed the social, cultural, religious and demographic
landscape of European societies by transforming them into ethnically
more heterogeneous and diverse political communities. It is estimated
that Muslims currently constitute approximately 5.2 per cent of Europe’s
total inhabitants, which is home to 38 million Muslims.[1] Of these, 13
million live within the European Union, but they are spread out over the
continent. There are about 4.5 million Muslims in France, Germany hosts
almost 4 million Muslims, and the United Kingdom is home to 1.6 million
Muslims. Italy, the Netherlands and Spain each have just over half a
million Muslims, while smaller countries such as Austria, Sweden and
Belgium have less than half a million. Turks constitute the largest
Muslim immigrant community in Europe with an estimated number of 4.6
million.[2]
Presence of large numbers of Turks and Muslims in Europe poses numerous
challenges to European societies, such as immigration, citizenship,
integration, political participation and representation, access to equal
opportunities, acceptance of diversity, peaceful co-existence, and
rising Islamophobia. These issues are further complicated by Europe’s
growing multicultural environments. European countries responded to
these challenges differently drawing on their history, state formation,
political culture and social structures. Although a number of policies
were introduced in the past to manage the presence of Turkish and Muslim
communities, informed by a variety of political discourses and
approaches, ranging from liberal to conservative, from multiculturalist
to assimilationist ones, there seems to be no large scale success story
concerning the integration of these groups into mainstream European
societies. This failure stems from a political and sociological
blindness, which views Muslims as a unified and static group despite
their rich internal diversity and strategies of adaptation to European
civil culture. Muslims in Europe have attempted to engage in
re-configurations of their collective identity.
Although Europe has opened its arms to Muslims and largely allowed them
to become citizens and settle, reports by the European Union Monitoring
Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, European Network Against Racism and
Equality and the Runnymede Trust all demonstrate that there is
widespread Islamophobia in Europe. This is a reflection that European
politicians, media and the public have less successfully opened their
hearts and minds to Muslims and their culture.
Since September 11, 2001, a “culturalist” trend emerged in Europe, which
has perpetuated negative stereotypes and sweeping generalizations about
Muslims leading to the essentialization and securitization of Islam and
to discrimination and acts of violence against Muslims. Several reports
confirm that Turks and Muslims in Europe face various problems. For
example, 69 per cent of the Turks in Belgium, 61 per cent in the
Netherlands, and 58 per cent in Denmark are of the opinion that
discrimination on /ethnic grounds/ is very or fairly widespread, and
those in Belgium (71 per cent) and the Netherlands (61 per cent) are the
most concerned about discrimination on the grounds of /religion/ or
/belief/. About half of the Turks in Germany and Denmark (48 per cent,
52 per cent respectively) and one third in Austria (29 per cent) think
that discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief is very or
fairly widespread.[3]
Following a referendum on November 29, 2009 in which 57.5 per cent of
Swiss voters voted to ban the building of new minarets in the country,
Switzerland became the first country in Europe to curb the religious
practices of Muslims. In fact, this referendum took place following
heated debates when a Turkish-Muslim Association in the town of Wangen
in Soleure applied to build a minaret to their mescit (place of worship)
in 2006. The referendum results call for a comprehensive reading and
re-thinking of Turkish and Muslim migration to Europe because what
happened in Switzerland is a reflection of broader issues concerning the
presence of Turks and Muslims in the heart of secular Europe. This
special issue provides a cutting-edge analysis by going beyond common
place discussions and addressing fundamental societal and political
questions, such as citizenship, identity, integration, political
participation, and Islamophobia. Because modern Europeans can no longer
ignore the role Muslim immigrants play in their multicultural societies.
Endnotes
1. Miller, Tracy (Ed.), /Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A Report
on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Muslim Population/,
(Washington: Pew Research Center, October 2009), p.6.
2. Küçükcan, T., “Bridging the European Union and Turkey: The Turkish
Diaspora in Europe,” /Insight Turkey/, Vol. 9, No. 4 (2007), p.87.
3. /European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey/, Vienna,
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2009), p.199; Violence
Against Muslims, Hate Crime Survey, Human Rights First (2008).
Copyright 2008 by
Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research. All Rights Reserved.