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Muslims In Europe Seek More Integration
By
Mustafa Abdel-Halim, IOL Staff
CAIRO,
August 16 (IslamOnline.net) - Still bearing the brunt of the September
11 attacks, many Muslims in Europe found it necessary to seek more
active political and social integration in their societies.
"With
invoking more awareness of our own rights and deep understanding of
social circumstances around, we can get what we want," said
Othman Moqbal, a British Muslim.
Although
Britain is not such a full multicultural and multiracial society,
Moqbal is proud that Muslims are making greater strides into
"social and political involvement" in the kingdom.
He
noted, in this respect, that Britain's National Students Union (NSU)
has 50 "conspicuously influential" Muslim members for this
year against two or three ones in earlier years.
In
Britain, Muslim students organize an Islam Awareness Week every year,
where Britons are invited to know more about a religion many still see
through eyes of suspicion and enmity.
Rapprochement
Muslims
in the West still believe the challenge has to do with
"double-fold awareness" as put in the words of Khallad, a
German engineering student.
"Along
with getting closer to each other for a homogenous relations in
society, Muslims also should elucidate what Islam is and what Muslims
are," he said with a clear enthusiastic tone.
The
Head of the European Muslim Youth and Student Organization (FEMYSO),
Khallad contended that the still tarnished and stereotyped image of
Muslims could be cleared by individual and organizational efforts.
In
Germany, he said, the national unity anniversary celebration on
October 3 is used by the three-million Muslims as an "open day
where mosques are open to non-Muslims and lectures and discussions are
organized in cooperation with the country's churches".
For
the other fold, Khallad stressed, Muslims should walk down the
moderate line and seek cooperation with society instead of
"inculpating it for moral bankruptcy and social exclusion".
Austrian
Abdullah said that though his country is the best place for Muslims to
live, things have seen a bite of a change ever since the 9-11 attacks.
"After
the attacks, I had worn a beard, to show people that not all
beard-wearing persons are terrorists," persistent Abdullah said.
'Self-made'
Simply
as it is, others see the problem could be emanating from
"within" Muslims themselves.
"The
sense of victimhood could be harbored by us, and might be borne out of
feeling discriminated against all the times," said 20-year-old
Fazeela Zaib, from Sweden.
Wearing
Hijab, she admitted that "integration into European
society and its political cores needs a challenge," – the last
was a watchword for many speaking to IOL.
"We
have to prove to society that dressing in accordance with our own
religion, we can be doctors, engineers and assume the highest
posts," she said, admitting that getting a job is not the easiest
thing for hijab-wearing women in the West.
American
female police officer was
reprimanded and sent home without pay until she removed Hijab
while on duty.
Recent
studies concerning European Muslims indicated that due to social
tensions based on religious discrimination, "young Muslims suffer
from high unemployment and social marginalization, factors that could
lead to delinquency".
Londoner
Iftikhar Ahmad put it as blunt that children from Muslim minority in
the UK are exposed to the pressure of what he called racism,
multiculturalism and bullying.
"They
suffer academically, culturally and linguistically, and a high
proportion of children of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin are leaving
British schools with no grades and no qualifications" he recently
wrote in the Guardian.
'More
Challenging'
Although
the September 11 attacks helped step up a barrage of criticisms
against Muslims in Europe and the U.S., some argued that the event,
however gruesome, held some positive elements for them.
"After
the attacks, a growing number of Islamic political organizations came
to existence to deal with the media and secure more political rights
at this critical juncture," said Alaa Bayoumi, of the Council on
American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
He
said there is a need to educate Muslims "about social and
political activistism and expound the essence of the religion to
non-Muslims".
Bayoumi
lamented that not so a small number of westerns draw their knowledge
of Islam through "biased media outlets and active politicians
with negative agenda towards Muslims" – main factors for
turning people on Muslim minorities.
But
many observers keep upbeat about recent moves taken to increase
Muslims' involvement.
The
European Union – with 20 million Muslims making up about six percent
of its overall population - was quick to take the initiative.
It
launched the program of the European Muslim Youth for Enrichment of
Society, by virtue which "Muslims could table their demands,
visions and ways of understanding society along with vowing their
commitments," said Khallad of the FEMYSO.
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