Islam and the European Project

Abstract

There exists a limited pluralist model of regulating or `managing' religious diversity in contemporary Europe. This pluralist model, however, is in contrast to the limitations that appear at the state level, which reflect an increasingly illiberal, secular Europe. Such contrast stems historically from tensions that exist between the national and transnational aspects of the model itself, but it also reflects the emerging debates on religious pluralism and the democratic state. With the settlement of post-colonial migrants (with Muslims constituting a large majority) a public debate on the role of religion in Europe has resurfaced as these communities exist outside the historical formation of Western church-state relations and are challenging the very underpinning of what comprises a `liberal' democratic state. In particular, it is the role of Islam in secular Europe that frames several questions in this debate: to what extent is it necessary to regulate religious freedoms in the `public sphere' in order to protect the democratic state? What restrictions on minority religions should be considered `necessary in a democratic society’ and what limitations should be placed on state interference in minority religions as protection against the undue influence of a dominant social group? Against this backdrop, this article explores the historical social formation of religious pluralism in the European context and examines the legal and political frameworks at the national and regional levels to `regulate' diversity.

Street Salafism: Contingency and urbanity as religious creed

“…Their investment in liberal democracy, then, is different. Their relationship to liberalism is not one of integration, which they attribute as the outcome of earlier generations’ efforts, but agonism in response to ‘illiberal secularism expressed in illiberal restrictions on religion in the public sphere’ (Cavanaugh, 2007: 2). They recognise the limits of liberalism’s promise for the protection or projection of their Muslimness; similar to the ‘indifference to difference’ that Fernando reports among new generations of Muslim activists in France (Fernando, 2014).…”

Human rights, Islam and the failure of cosmopolitanism

“…The second tension sits between human rights, cosmopolitanism and religion. Human rights are rooted in a liberal, secular paradigm that surfaces when confronted with religious minorities making religious freedom claims and has created a pressure towards the privatization of religion in order to maintain the secular nature of the European public sphere in response to the rise of multi-faith communities (Cavanaugh, 2007: 10–11). The ECtHR’s deference to national governments on qualified rights such as the right to religious freedom exposes this deep-seated conflict.…”