The Guardian (London)
May 14, 2002
SECTION: Guardian Leader Pages, Pg. 16
HEADLINE: Comment & Analysis: Call this monster by its name: Islamophobia is
the main weapon of Europe's resurgent far right. New Labour is now playing
catch-up
BYLINE: Faisal Bodi
Intolerance is once again on the march in Europe. From the toxic tongue of
Jean-Marie Le Pen to the candy-coated chauvinism of Peter Hain, a clear
political consensus is emerging. In France 6 million people voted for a
demagogue who congratulated the Serbian fascist leader Vojislav Seselj for
defending "near enough the same things that we defend". Seselj, leader of
the paramilitary White Eagles during the Bosnian and Croatian wars, has been
named in the Hague war crimes tribunal as an organiser of pogroms.
Over the Alps, the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, famously
proclaimed the superiority of western over Islamic civilisation. His
government includes the Northern League leader, Umberto Bossi, who has
protested about the use of public land for mosques for the "Muslim
invaders". In Germany, the main challenge to Gerhard Schroder in September's
elections will come from the Christian Social Union, which has insisted that
German Muslims must accept the "Christian norms of Germany". Pim Fortuyn,
the assassinated Dutch populist leader, denounced Islam as a "backward
culture". In Belgium, the Vlaams Blok has become the largest party in
several cities by campaigning to reduce the number of mosques and
institutionalising discrimination against Islam.
A poster declaring "By the time you retire, Denmark will be a
majority-Muslim nation" helped the Danish People's party leader Pia
Kjaersgaard win a place in the ruling rightist coalition last November -
shortly after she declared a "holy war" on Islam.
Forgive me if this is getting tedious, but it would not be necessary had
western commentators called this monster by its name - instead of
exaggerating the extent of resurgent anti-semitism to evoke sympathy for
Israel's irredentism in the Holy Land. In fact, the media has signally
avoided giving due weight to the anti-Islamic face of the renascent right.
The history of contemporary European Islamophobia starts with the fall of
the iron curtain and the appearance of a new challenger to western
capitalist hegemony. In a still self-consciously Christian Europe, this
ideological competition has been grafted on to the legacies of the Crusades
and Ottoman-Christian rivalries, and the perceived demographic and cultural
threat posed by a growing Muslim population.
Intoxicated by this poisonous brew, Austrians swept Jorg Haider's Freedom
party into power in 1999. The party had campaigned on an anti-Muslim
platform, drafting a political catch-all for its hate politics, Uberfremdung
("foreigner-swamping") into the electoral vocabulary. But despite symbolic
sanctions, no EU state took concrete steps to combat Islamophobia.
Failure to do so has left the field open for the likes of Le Pen and Fortuyn
to lead the debate on immigration, asylum and multiculturalism. In Britain,
New Labour is playing catch-up by moving right. Peter Hain's remarks about
Muslim "isolationism" echo the home secretary's proposal for citizenship
training and tests - as well as his comments about "swamping" (a close
approximation to Uberfremdung ). Both play to the far right's insistence
that Mus lims must conform to a prior ideal of national identity.
Somebody should tell Peter Hain that official policy, not voluntary
isolationism, is the main obstacle to Muslim integration. This government is
still resisting a compelling case to help the community feel at ease by
introducing modest institutional safeguards against rising domestic
Islamophobia. Since 1997 a small library of official reports has recommended
legislation to outlaw religious discrimination and violence. But while the
BNP leader, Nick Griffin, has been able to proclaim on prime-time TV that
there is a "Muslim problem", successive home secretaries have dragged their
feet. The government's commitment to implementing the European employment
and race directive will outlaw only religious discrimination in the
workplace.
Europe's Islamophobia has prevented it from developing models of religious
coexistence, with the status of minorities - along with attendant rights and
responsibilities - written into the statute book. Austria, ironically
enough, provides a useful starting point. In 1912 what was then Austro-
Hungary enacted a pioneering piece of legislation, the Islam Act, to set out
the terms of state-Muslim interaction. Two years later the first world war
broke out, Austria lost its Bosnian Mus lim territories and the law fell
into abeyance until 1979. Today the act's main value is that it accords
Islam state recognition. This translates into a raft of legal rights, mainly
in education - Muslim children are taught their religion in public schools
by teachers paid by the state - but also in employment and military service.
The 1912 reforms came about because Austro-Hungary needed to keep the newly
incorporated Muslim population of Bosnia-Herzegovina on side in the fickle
pre-war power balance. The emergence of a large-scale Muslim presence in
Europe, threatened by an intolerant and increasingly influential right,
demands an equally far-sighted response.
Faisal Bodi is a writer on Muslim affairs and editor of ummahnews.com
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