exploring muslim identities in europe & north america

Aygül Özkan, the 38-year-old daughter of Turkish migrant parents, was sworn in as Social Affairs Minister in Lower-Saxony last Tuesday thus becoming the first minister of Turkish origin in Germany. Her appointment constitutes a breakthrough in other ways too, as she is a member of the Christian Democratic Party that, despite its claims to the contrary, has been ambivalent insofar as the integration of Germany's Turkish community into the mainstream is concerned.  And, indeed, just before her oath-taking ceremony, the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, CSU, were embroiled in turmoil over Ms Özkan's call for a ban on crucifixes and other religious symbols in schools in an interview with news weekly Focus. 'Christian symbols do not belong in state-run schools. Public schools should be neutral spaces, free of religious symbols, for the same reason that headscarves are inappropriate', Özkan said. Despite the fact that the new minister was merely affirming German co...

An interesting article from the Sunday edition of the Greek newspaper, TO VIMA, traces the changes that one of the very few European societies that had a historical experience of coexistence with Islam is undergoing. Although Eastern Orthodox Christians living in the southern Balkans have lived side by side with Ottoman Muslims for over five centuries, today, Greeks are much more sceptical about the presence of Muslims and Islam in the country. According to some sources, there may be 830,000 to 1,000,000 Muslim residents and citizens in Greece. Whereas, in the past, the minority (Muslim citizens of Greece exempted from the Lausanne Treaty population exchange) were concentrated in Northeastern Greece, today the bulk of Greece's Muslims (primarily migrants from various Muslim countries, but also an increasing number of converts) live throughout the country but primarily in the Athens conurbation. Since the establishment of the Greek state in the 1830s, Orthodox Chr...

The Sarkozy government's debates on national identity peddle the same old story about the enemy within – French Muslims by Faïza Guène   guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 January 2010 10.00 GMT The nationwide debate on national identity launched in November by Eric Besson , the minister of immigration, national identity, integration, and co-development, has now been raging for several weeks. I'm actually not that surprised by all of this – we have grown accustomed to these diversionary tactics used by the government, sort of like when a magician distracts you with a dove in order to better conceal the ace of clubs hidden up his sleeve. David Copperfield might as well go back to where he came from now that Nicolas Sarkozy's government is in place. Of course this isn't the first time that politicians have encouraged the public to think about empty questions on the eve of elections, in this case the regional elections scheduled for March 2010. They tried that old trick with...

Back in August 1997, in the early morning of a warm summer day I was on a ferry, arriving to the beautiful city of Rethymno in the island of Crete. This was the second time in my life I was visiting Crete but, unlike the crowds of backpackers revellling in the ealy morning sunshine on the ship decks, my ultimate destination was not a tourist spot but a grim military camp where I had to report to undergo the compulsory military training that (almost) all conscripts in the Greek army have to go through. Despite my initial sense of impending gloom, these few months I spent in Western Crete gave me the opportuni ty of getting to know, and fall in love with this part of the island. This relationship I established with the place was necessary and perhaps unavoidable in a way, as it provided an antidote to the isolation and desperation that life in a military camp often entails.  But, from the moment I set eyes on the town of Rethymno on that morning, I knew that there was something intri...

The Open Society Foundations' Muslims in Europe report series constitutes the comparative analysis of data from 11 cities in seven European countries. It points out common trends and offers recommendations at the local, national, and international levels, including to the European Union and to international organizations. While not representative of the situation of all Muslims in these cities, this report does capture a snapshot of the experiences of Muslim communities in select neighborhoods in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Antwerp, Berlin and Hamburg, Copenhagen, Leicester and Waltham Forest-London, Marseille and Paris, and Stockholm. This body of work comes in response to major trends with regards to Muslims living in Europe: whether citizens or migrants, native born or newly arrived, Muslims are a growing and varied population that presents Europe with one of its greatest challenges, namely how to ensure equal rights and opportunities for all in a climate of rapidly expanding ...

Switzerland has become the first European country to ban the construction of minarets in its constitution . The proposal grew out of the campaign of a number of conservative groups in the normally sleepy Swiss country town of Langenthal against an application to build a minaret next to a mosque.   The proposal was launched by members of the rightwing Swiss People's Party and the ultra conservative Federal Democratic Union. The ultra-conservative Swiss People's Party (SVP) has displayed in the past a flair for the dramatic at the expense of migrants who happen to have the wrong colour or to profess the wrong religion. In 2007 it got its largest ever share of the vote after a sleek anti-foreigner campaign that was explicitly racist. Ulrich Schüler, an SVP parliamentarian and leading member of the anti-minaret movement, trying to rationalize his party's position has argued that the minarets are political rather than religious. ...

On the anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, we must commit to tackle racial and religious hate crimes fuelled by the far right   Muhammad Abdul Bari   guardian.co.uk , Saturday 11 July 2009 13.00 BST In early July 1995, during several days of carnage, Bosnian Serb forces commanded by Ratko Mladić summarily executed more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys who had sought sanctuary in the town of Srebrenica . Nearly 25,000 women, children and elderly people were forcibly deported, and rapes and beatings were common, making this event the biggest war crime to take place in Europe since the end of the second world war. In January this year the European parliament voted to designate 11 July as Srebrenica remembrance day to ensure that the memory of this terrible crime lives on. It is a warning and a reminder that more than 60 years after the Holocaust caused an entire generation to say "never again", the dangers of sectarianism and division are as r...