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3 - The question of Euro-Islam: restriction or opportunity?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Jorgen Nielsen
Edited by
Aziz Al-Azmeh  and
Effie Fokas
Jorgen Nielsen
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Aziz Al-Azmeh
Affiliation:
Central European University, Budapest
Effie Fokas
Affiliation:
Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
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Summary

In 2002 a group of senior journalists on the Danish daily newspaper Politiken published a collection of essays under the title ‘Islam in Denmark: reflections on a third way’. In their foreword they described the two positions between which they were positing a third way.

In one trench are the xenophobes who say ‘no thank you to everything’ regarding Muslims. They oppose the multicultural society, even though it is already reality. They are against further immigration, even though that is a condition for the continuing financing of the welfare state. They are sceptical about the immigrants' religion, customs, dress, etc., even though these are things which belong to the private sphere. The xenophobes prevail in large sections of the political parties and were especially visible in the general election campaign last autumn.

In the other trench are the so-called progressives who say ‘yes please’ to everything as regards Islamic culture. They see Muslims as inherently an enrichment of Danish culture. Any attempt to take a critical stand towards fundamentalist and reactionary tendencies in Muslim culture is automatically labelled racism and xenophobia.

Both stances are deeply problematical.

The following year another collections of essays appeared, this time edited by a group of young Danish Muslims of immigrant heritage, interestingly including an introduction by yet another Politiken journalist, Anders Jerichow.

Type
Chapter
Information
Islam in Europe
Diversity, Identity and Influence
 , pp. 34 - 48
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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