Ethnicity of Fear? Islamic Migration and the Ethnicization of Islam in Europe

Abstract

This feature article acknowledges the fact that neither Islam, understood as the umma community, nor the modern civic European nations, are ethnic identities. Why then are both related to the notion of 'ethnicity' in the present article? Why does the analysis of the Muslim diaspora in Europe prompt an alert of an 'ethnicity of fear'? In order to answer these questions the analysis departs from the supposition of an ongoing ethnicization process that results in an ethnic conflict. The question and the supposition furnish the subject matter of the present study. Preliminary Remark: Knowledge, Interest and IdentityThis article deals with religion and ethnicity in the diasporic culture of an emerging segment of the universal umma community that is based in Europe.

‘Having a German passport will not make me German’: reactive ethnicity and oppositional identity among disadvantaged male Turkish second-generation youth in Germany

“…The principle of blood (ius sanguinis) was modified into the principle of territory (ius soli) in the 2000 German citizenship law, which made it possible for children of immigrants to acquire German citizenship, but only if they renounced their parents' nationality 1 (Ersanilli and Koopmans 2011). However, this reform intensified concerns regarding the incompatibility between Muslim Turkish immigrants and the society's 'guiding culture' (Leitkultur) (Klusmeyer 2001), which increasingly culturalized and ethnicized the concept of Islam in Germany (Tibi 2010). 9/11 has further marginalized and criminalized Islam and shifted the public image of Turkish immigrants from 'ethnic problem' to religious 'other' (Holtz, Dahinden, and Wagner 2013).…”

Group learning and performance: the role of communication and faultlines

“…We also believed that employment and family could determine faultlines, as students with these characteristics might be perceived as significantly different from average students, so we also included a question about whether respondents were currently employed and whether they had children. In addition, considering that ethnicity tends to be conceptualized and categorized differently around the world (Morawska 2008;Aljunied 2010;Eifert, Miguel and Posner 2010;Sandovici and Listhaug 2010;Tapp 2010;Tibi 2010; van Riemsdijk 2010) and therefore nationality may be a more universal form of cultural segmentation, we included nationality as a variable, asking 'What is your nationality? (i.e.…”

Hybrid Muslim identities in digital space: The Italian blog Yalla

“…A number of studies have analysed strategies of cultural and social adaptations of Muslims in Europe, as well as the articulation of hybrid identities (Roy, 2013;Tibi, 2010). Similarly, other studies (Arfi, 2010;Jones, 2013;Talhami, 2004;Yeğenoğlu, 2006) show how European identity is not homogeneously based on secularism and Christianity, often formed instead through the exclusion of ethnic and religious groups, thereby creating fear of the 'Muslim other'.…”