[Mb-civic] Absorbing Europe's Muslims - H.D.S. Greenway - Boston Globe Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

  Absorbing Europe's Muslims

By H.D.S. Greenway  |  March 28, 2006  |  The Boston Globe

DURING A discussion about Muslims in Europe at the American Academy in 
Berlin, where I had the opportunity to spend a few weeks this winter, a 
young man rose to ask a disturbing question.

''In Germany we have the most liberal constitution . . . and freedom of 
religion," he said. ''There is perhaps more freedom than is available in 
any other country of the world. But on the other hand there is a paradox 
which I have experienced personally as a German of Pakistani descent." 
For even though he had been born in Germany, spoke fluent German, and 
had even served in the German Army, he found Germany ''one of the most 
psychologically hostile countries towards Muslims."

''This is not concerning the state and the government, but concerning 
the hearts and minds of the German people," he said. ''There is an 
extremely negative attitude -- a hostile attitude towards Muslims. What 
can be done to overcome that and to achieve a certain kind of peaceful 
coexistence?"

Germany is not alone in having difficulties absorbing immigrants, 
especially Muslims, who make up the fastest-growing minority in Europe. 
Originally recruited as ''guest workers" who were supposed to go home 
eventually, these mostly Muslim immigrants stayed on, sent for their 
families, and now are in their second and third generations. And more 
are coming every day.

Europe simply cannot get used to the fact that it has become an 
immigrant target. From about 1800 to 1920, Europe exported some 85 
million people to the New World. Now this trend has reversed itself, and 
Europe has become a net importer. Immigrants from Africa and Asia are 
pouring in to find the same difficulties that dark-skinned immigrants 
have found elsewhere in Europe, North America, and Australia.

This is not unique to Germany, but Germany did refuse to admit that it 
had become a country of immigrants longer than most of its neighbors. 
Germany said citizenship comes through German blood, not the fact that 
you were born in Germany. Thus a descendant of Germans from Kazakhstan, 
whose family may have lived in Russia since Catherine the Great, gets a 
warmer welcome in Germany than descendants of Turks, Moroccans, or 
Pakistanis, even though the latter may have been born in Germany.

This changed in 1999 when laws were passed to free up citizenship to 
those not of German blood. But the laws can be changed faster than minds.

The gulf between Muslims and non-Muslim Europeans is growing, especially 
after 9/11, the Madrid and London bombings, and the murder of Dutch 
filmmaker Theo van Gogh at the hands of a Dutch-speaking Moroccan who 
thought van Gogh had insulted Muslims. The flap over the Danish cartoons 
has exacerbated this hostility, even though European Muslims did not 
join their co-religionists elsewhere in rioting.

Later, after the discussion at the academy, I turned on the TV news from 
the BBC. Two of the news presenters were South Asian women. Thinking of 
the young man's question, I recalled a conversation with Turkish-German 
politician Cem Ozdemir, now a member of the European Parliament, who had 
said how impressed he was with the number of dark faces he saw on 
British television compared with German television. And while Britain 
and France had plenty of immigrants playing on their national soccer 
teams, Germany, which will play host to the World Cup this summer, has 
no Germans of Turkish origin on the Germany national team -- even though 
Germans of Turkish origin make up the largest immigrant group in 
Germany. A German Turk might happily play for Berlin, for example, but 
when it comes to the national team he plays for Turkey. ''The best 
players for Turkey are from Germany," Ozdemir said.

France, too, is beginning to recognize that simply having more immigrant 
faces in the public eye can make a huge difference in changing 
anti-immigrant attitudes. Azouz Begag, a novelist and native of Lyon of 
Algerian descent, who now serves as minister for equal opportunity in 
the French government, told me how, after the November riots that shook 
France, public and private televisions companies were brought together 
to discuss how French TV might show more immigrant faces. He said that 
French President Jacques Chirac wanted ''to see more diversity on the 
screen." He conceded that the British had been more successful in this 
endeavor than the French.

Certainly seeing black and Hispanic faces on television has helped to 
break down prejudices in the United States -- a small step, perhaps, but 
one that can have surprisingly beneficial results.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/03/28/absorbing_europes_muslims/
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