The Myth of “Eurabia”

LONDON – There is a powerful narrative today about how many young European Muslims are susceptible to terrorism, how Islam leads to radicalization, and how Muslims, because of their creed, choose to live in ghettos and therefore create swamps that breed terrorists. This narrative’s most extreme form is the idea of “Eurabia,” an incendiary term that purportedly describes a phenomenon by which Muslim hordes are now contaminating Europe’s very DNA.

From this narrative, fear of homegrown terrorism resonates the most, as does the impetus to deal with Muslims as a foreign foe. So, too, does the idea that accommodating religious differences is dangerous. A false dichotomy is created in which Muslims must choose between a Western and European identity or a supposedly separate Islamic identity.

But the relationship between European Muslims’ faith and identification with European nations seldom conforms to the “Eurabia” stereotype. A wide-ranging global Gallup study that culminated in the book Who Speaks for Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think, by John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, includes detailed and sophisticated analysis of European Muslims’ attitudes. The results suggest that religious and national identities are complementary, not competing, concepts.

Muslims living in Paris, London, and Berlin are more religious than the general public, but they are just as likely as anyone else to identify with their nation and its democratic institutions, and just as likely to reject violence.

The prevailing narrative often regards mosques and Islamic associations as spaces for radicalization, but I contend that some young people are actively turning away from these peaceful institutions. This may be because mosques and Islamic associations find it difficult to compete with the promises of solace available through the Internet, where voices can address political issues, feed off injustices around the world, and launch calls to arms that can ultimately be murderous.

The Internet is where some young Muslims succumb to the alluring narrative of Islam constructed by those behind the terror attacks of our age. We also know that the Internet’s devastating impact on handfuls of young people is not confined to the Muslim community, as evidenced by the tragic events in Bridgend in the United Kingdom, where 17 young people, seemingly connected through the Internet, committed suicide.

For some young Muslims, the paramount sub-culture is virtual, and it operates on the fringes of Muslim communities, whether in Europe or in the Islamic world. The story it presents is of a world beset by real injustices, for which the only solution is violent action that will supposedly lead to the victory of a monolithic Muslim world. Never mind the inconvenient truth that the acts may be theologically impermissible; the ends justify the means, and there really is no alternative.

Such a narrative is appealing because it feeds into the alienation that many young Muslims feel. Some may look to unpopular and unjust foreign adventures in Iraq as examples of the futility of lawful political action. Others feel suffocated by the prevailing toxic discourse that casts European Muslims as foreign, alien, and suspect. Laws enacted to single out and “persecute” Muslims, and statements that affirm the Islamophobia of our media, buttress the absurd notion that what we are really witnessing is a “war on Islam.”

In Muslim communities everywhere, there is a need to challenge this narrative by making known Islam’s theological repudiation of violence. We must redouble our efforts to reach out in local communities and demonstrate the realities of our faith. Thus, one should pay tribute to the resilience of Dutch Muslims as they resist the provocations of the right-wing politician Geert Wilders, who is bent on releasing a film that can only inflame public prejudice against Islam. Muslims in The Netherlands are responding by opening up their mosques and reaching out to neighbors.

There is a collective responsibility to treat such problems not as Muslim issues, but as problems whose solutions will enhance the values on which European society is based. Addressing the sense of injustice, siege, and alienation faced by young Muslims is not a victory for the extremists. Rather, it is a victory for European liberal values because it demonstrates that every individual and every minority is of equal worth.

Indeed, we should view neither homegrown terrorism nor the presence of Muslims as new to Europe. Islam’s interaction with European society sparked a flowering of knowledge, and large numbers of Muslims have inhabited the Balkans and eastern and central Europe for hundreds of years. They helped rebuild the economies of war-torn Europe in the 1950s, arriving as immigrants and then making Europe their home. In almost every field of life, Muslims have been an integral part of the European tapestry.

All Europeans, including those who are Muslim, are right to worry about the issue of homegrown terrorism. Our right to security and life is paramount, as is the need to inhabit a space free of prejudice and suspicion. The 7/7 bombings in 2005 in my home city of London brought this into sharp relief. The victims were of all faiths and races, including Muslims, as were the heroes who helped London get back on its feet so quickly. Londoners’ collective message after 7/7 was decisive, and it must be Europe’s message as well: we will not allow such atrocities to divide us.

Muhammad Abdul Bari is Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain.