Radicalization in Western Europe: Integration, Public Discourse and Loss of Identity Among Muslim Communities by Carolin Görzig & Khaled Al-Hashimi

Author:Carolin Görzig & Khaled Al-Hashimi [Görzig, Carolin & Al-Hashimi, Khaled]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Terrorism, Political Freedom, Security (National & International), History, Europe, Western
ISBN: 9781317812654
Google: kUiDBAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00NIVQH82
Barnesnoble: B00NIVQH82
Goodreads: 40665430
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Us versus them

The way in which Jyllands-Posten’s publication of the Muhammed cartoons and the ensuing debate throughout Europe pitted Western civilization against Islam revives what Samuel Huntington perceived as a “clash of civilizations.” Accordingly, Flemming Rose asserts that “this is a global struggle for the right to free speech,”52 and a BBC article speaks of a “clash of culture,”53 as one example among many. In The Muhammed Cartoons and the Imagined Clash of Civilizations, Elisabeth Eide et al. declare that Samuel Huntington’s thesis from the mid-1990s enjoyed a comeback after 9/11, and is perpetuated by the free speech discourse.54

The underlying message of an assumed clash is that two worlds are standing in irreconcilable opposition. “Us” and “them” are mutually exclusionary and stand in conflict instead of living side by side in harmony. Inherent in the discourse about clashing civilizations is an escalatory dynamic. By describing “us” and “them” with a conflictive focus the discourse can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy bringing about the divide it claims to observe. This divide is nurtured by the tendency to describe the European “us” from a position of moral superiority and by ascribing the Islamic “them” an inferior position.

As has been shown in this sub-chapter, attributes with positive connotations such as moderate, freedom, and enlightened are juxtaposed with negative attributes such as terrorism, oppression, and intolerance. These signifiers on each side describe the signifiers of the Islamic public sphere versus the European political sphere. Both spheres symbolize identities of the European Muslim. The identification with European democracy thereby increases for individuals who are better integrated. The more Muslims in Europe identify with its political system, the more they will be affected by the conflict that emerges when their public Islamic identity is depicted as irreconcilable with Western democracy. Ironically, the editor of Jyllands-Posten and other protagonists of a radical version of free speech assert that the publication of the cartoons is a driver of integration, a symbol of equal treatment. Accordingly, Muslims can be criticized as openly as any other European. However, not only has Jyllands-Posten demonstrated double standards when it came to demands to ridicule the Christian religion, the argument also ignores that integrated individuals should have the same right to criticize as everyone else. While assimilation is a one-sided process, integration implies exerting efforts as well as obligation and rights on both sides. Flemming Rose expects from Muslim immigrants what he himself is not willing to offer: tolerance and respect.

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