Riots in the streets of France have sharply brought to focus the real political discontent that has been simmering away at the background for many years in minority ethnic communities. Now considered as an unforeseen re ality, it is gripping the French society. Second and third generation young people born and bred in France, but of North African descent, have been forced to assimilate. In schools, girls have been forced to remove their headscarves and Islam has been openly vilified by politicians, media, and even academic. This is a symptom of the failed assimilation policy and France’s fundamentalist secular principles. 

“We Need Our Voices Heard”

Muslims’ contributions are phenomenal and yet hardly even mentioned in the EU history books.

Socially excluded and disengaged youth are at loggerheads with authorities and French political leadership. Many young people have had enough; they have taken their frustrations onto the streets, burning cars, buildings, and generally causing havoc. And all of this in the name of “we need our voices heard.” This has dogged the French capital and surrounding areas, yet there has been a remarkable silence and lack of calls for a genuine debate in French society about its treatment of its minority, its failed and forced assimilation policies, and its future. We all agree that such criminal behavior is never acceptable under any circumstances. Islam certainly does not tolerate nor preach civil unrest or criminal damage. What we have seen being perpetrated by these young people in the streets of France is simply wrong. We condemn it unequivocally.

While we condemn the youth for their behavior, we also need to equally condemn  the French government. I certainly blame French society for its failure to genuinely embrace its Muslim citizens as equals. Through forced assimilation, the French government has been trying to impose a monoculture upon its diverse communities. It has deprived faith communities, especially Muslims, the freedom to express their faith fairly and openly in the way they dress, educate themselves, or practice family customs. They have been deprived of their religious rights. The country has shunned religion and has called it a symbol of all ill. This is definitely not befitting for a civilized democracy. The unfair, unjust, and Islamophobic attitudes of the French government are wrong, and those youngsters who took to rioting in the streets of  France as a means of expressing their discontent were also wrong. Two wrongs can never make a right. 

In various parts of Europe, young Muslims are rising up to challenge their governments demanding their rights, and voicing their discontent. We have seen similar movements sweeping through the  Netherlands not that long ago. This has occasionally sparked conflicts in various part of Britain as well. Underpinning all of these incidents is one simple fact—Muslims feeling that they are not being treated as equal citizens in various parts of  Europe. 

The media in Europe hasn’t played a fair role either. It has unfairly conflated the question of immigration, national security, and terrorism. This has cast a shadow of suspicion on Muslims, unfairly equating them with terrorists and encouraging an environment that could lead to prejudice and hate crimes. Through its sensation ali st drama, films, unbalanced documentaries, and so-called speci ali st advisors who utilize false stereotypes, racist and Islamophobic rhetoric, the media promotes an anti-immigration, anti–Muslim, and right-wing agenda.

Calling Me “Chocolate”: Everyday Stories

Young children copy their parents, and it is the home culture we need to address.

Muslims have been in Europe for a long time. Islam and Europe crossed each others’ paths many times in the past, too. The difference is that Muslims are now demanding that they be accepted as part of a collective European narrative, and rightly so. Just as Christianity is a part and parcel of European identity, Europe must wake up and embrace Islam as part of the package.

Western civilization did not fall out of the sky one day in its completed form. It has developed over time, with the help of other civilizations from around the world, including Islamic ones. In history textbooks in European schools, one hardly ever finds mention of the contribution of Islam to European civilizations. When I was studying history in schools, in colleges, and universities, I never once read the names of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Ibn Zubair, Ibn Al-Haytham, and Al-Jabir. Many scholars say that if Ibn Rushd had not translated and explained Aristotle’s work from Greek to Arabic (from which it was later translated to Latin and Hebrew), the Enlightenment in the West would not have taken place. Modern medical science owes Ibn Sina a great deal to his great work, which includes encyclopedic writings on medicine. In mathematics, architecture, arts, food, and clothing, Muslims’ contributions are phenomenal, and yet they are hardly even mentioned in the history textbooks in European schools.

When I attended primary school in London, I was immediately thrown in the deep end of difference. I was a brown-skinned child in the middle of predominantly white pupils. Even if the young primary school children didn’t consciously attempt to make me feel different, there was an undercurrent that made me feel unequal. I remember a day when I was walking from my school with one of my classmates and the young boy was told off by his mother for playing with me, “a Paki” (a derogatory term used to address people of Asian decent in the  United Kingdom). There were other kids in the school who would call me names such as “chocolate,” and who would ask me questions such as “if I was normal.” Imagine how that must have felt at that young and tender age. I felt that I didn’t fit in. I was different. Don’t take me wrong; I don’t blame the children for their behavior, but rather their parents. These children grew up learning to perpetuate prejudice. Young children copy their parents, and it is the domestic culture in some people’s houses that we need to address.

I have recollections of my neighbor regularly throwing dog excrement at our door. She was proud of doing this. As a young child of not more than 7 years old, I was having breakfast one morning, when a brick smashed through the kitchen window and narrowly missed my mother and me. It landed on the kitchen floor with a huge bang. I remember feeling very scared and angry. Growing up under constant racism is never good for one’s self-esteem.

Difference is bliss, and diversity should be celebrated. At least that’s what we hear from various sections of European institutions and politicians and yet when it comes to practice, the good old colonial Eurocentric attitude prevails. This must change if we want a fully integrated Muslim community. Integration is not an option for Muslims and non-Muslims to choose; it is essential to survival and a peaceful cohesive society. Integration is not a one-way street; Muslims are told they must integrate, but seldom do we hear the same for the non-Muslim communities.

I believe that the way forward is mutual integration. In other words, we as communities, while retaining our essential features and core values, work together to create common values, common history, and common heritage. The future lies in different communities working to create a society based on a true sense of equ ali ty with a level playing field where all cultures and faiths equally form an integral part of a new civilization.

Come Out of Your Ghettos!

Muslims of Europe must come out of their ghettos.

While I demand acceptance and mutual integration from the non-Muslim community, I am acutely aware of the Muslim deficiencies that plague the Muslim world as well as Muslims living in Europe. Muslim communities living in  Europe must accept several re ali ties. First, Muslims must accept  Europe as their home. Second, they must accept that Europeans are their own people. Third, Muslims must share in the joys or sadnesses of Europeans. Last, Muslims must work for the well-being of  Europe .

Accepting these re ali ties in  Europe means that a culture change must take place within the minds of Muslims. It requires Muslims to reread their texts in the European context, as well as to write and explain about Islam in a new language—the language of Europeans and the modern world. It requires Muslims to change their attitudes and, therefore, they must live in the modern world. They must improve institutions such as mosques and religious organizations, a majority of which are run in a tribal and clandestine way. This must change and mosques should be run in a democratic way, fully accountable to all. All their dealings must be transparent to the general public. Muslims of Europe must come out of their ghettos; they should not accept being pushed into isolation. They must fight back using legitimate and peaceful means against racism, Islamophobia, and any form of social exclusion. It is not good enough for the Muslims to complain and point fingers at others. Our fate will not change unless we work to change it ourselves.

If people don’t feel at home in Europe and if they don’t want to work to change the situation here in Europe, the option is simple: Go back to where you come from or go to a country where you will feel at home. For those of us who wish to stay in Europe, we will have to change. We will have to integrate and, most importantly, present Islam to Europeans as if Islam is as European as Christianity and Muslims are as European as the rest of the native Europeans.

* Ajmal Masroor is a member of the national consultative body of the Islamic Society of Britain —a grass root organization that works to educate and create awareness  about Islam through communities in the UK . Masroor is a khatib and leads Friday prayers in rotation in four mosques around London. He studied politics and Arabic, and holds a diploma in counseling and a master’s degree in Islamic studies.