As requested, here is a transcribed version of one of my sessions at the World Economic Forum in Egypt a few days ago.

It’s great to come back home to good news for me personally (and not just the insanity of last night’s Russian Roulette!) with hopeful prospects of some kind of peace in the Swat region between the Pakistani Government and those “calling for Shari’ah”. Let’s hope it lasts insha’Allah.

Also, we’ve got the Maqra’ah of the Sunan of Abu Dawud starting Saturday morning at 8am at Markaz’l-Bukhary in Didsbury, Manchester. Leave your details if you wish to come.

Here are those notes then:

 

Citizenship and Integration

Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Bismillāhir-Rahmānir-Rahīm

Our document Islam and the West: Annual Report on the State of Dialogue suggests a number of things that concern European Muslims at the moment, with citizenship and integration very high up the agenda amongst other things.

Actually the biggest concern for many Muslims in Europe at this moment is not international politics and citizenship values etc but rather who’s going to win the European Cup on Wednesday. Come on you Reds!

But no, as the detailed report in front of you suggests, and here I should thank Georgetown and Tom Banchoff and his team for their great work, and we shouldn’t forget Ahmed Younis and Gallup for their excellent efforts, we note that more reporting on citizenship and integration was detected in Europe than in any other country or region covered by the media content survey conducted in 2007 (p.3). This is why this session is so important.

The problem though for many Muslims is that “integration”, for all you Trekkies out there, might as will be “assimilate” for all intents and purposes. That’s the Borg dogma for those who haven’t watched a movie for the last ten years.

This is more than aptly illustrated in the inherent weakness of the title of our dialogue: “Islam and the West” which we all of course appreciate as noted very well in the report. There is a great difficulty in framing the debate linguistically from both sides, and especially regarding the topic of citizenship and integration where the problem is at its most intense, which is why sometimes it’s easier and certainly more honest (but not perfect I may add) to sometimes frame the debate as “Muslims and non-Muslims”. That doesn’t sound too diplomatic or PC I know, but what gives the more problematic connotation?

Consider the following consequences with the original title: 

- For the Muslim European Citizen, it suggests that you are either there, “Islam”, or here, the “West”. That naturally increases the feeling of strangeness or foreignness for a person like me, someone born and bred in England, who has no other culture that I can identify with as perfectly as my “British” one. I was telling Tom, who’s American of course, that it’s a good thing that there aren’t many Germans around otherwise we’d have to fight over the sun-loungers. Instead, I’ve been getting my share of the sun (and hey we need sun as well) completely uncontested.

And by the way, your puzzled looks and lack of understanding of this point, is exactly the correct understanding of this point. Lord Carey is nodding which means he knows where I’m coming from!

Sure, clearly I look a bit different than what might be “expected” of an Englishman that espouses such a culture. Ok, so I look a lot different. My fellow non-Muslim citizens wouldn’t be alone in their confusion, just ask the Arab immigration officials whilst we flew into Egypt a few days back of their non-comprehension of “B-R-I-T-I-S-H” in response to their, “Nationality? No, original nationality. No, original nationality.”

But does my dress-sense exclude my citizenship and question my loyalty to my country? Of course not and many folk recognise that and the reason we’re discussing this now is so that we can work out how to convince the other half. I like such clothes, and that’s the benefit of the UK’s multi-cultural policy above the rest of Europe; the fact that I can’t get my stomach into jeans has nothing to do with this of course. But I digress.

- Despite being an authentic and loyal citizen, one becomes suspicious then of what my fellow non-Muslims citizens/government want from someone like me exactly. And the word on the street and in our congregations is not “integration” but more an “assimilation” i.e. that only by a near-complete relaxation of our own theology and liberalisation of our religion-specific values is by which acceptance will finally be achieved. Take my word for it; you won’t find that detail from any polls.

This is not a conspiracy theory but rather what has been perceived by the masses witnessing various European governments’ support of the secularisation of Islam to such an extent that its theology is being threatened. And have no doubt about it, the secularisation of Islam is not seen as praiseworthy by the majority and certainly orthodoxy, despite what is espoused by some fringe Muslim groups, indeed even the report accurately captures the emotion of this very issue on page 10, “Muslims – some more pious, others more secular.” Whatever one tries to do, Muslims certainly hold piety as a number one objective and anything in their religion which compromises that will be doomed in the long-run.

Secularisation and the banning of the headscarf is of course just one obvious example of this. France’s position on this will no doubt backfire, but even British policy isn’t as clear-cut as one may think, perfectly illustrated by our Queen’s praise of Turkey’s secularisation of its Muslim populace, in front of the Turkish “First Lady” who refuses to be subjugated by the secular terrorists of Turkey’s military elite. Such a bizarre contradiction in Governmental policy, espousing a successful form of democracy back in the UK but yet praising another ideology which has oppressed Muslims to such a huge extent under the dictator Ataturk and holding that up to be the model for all Muslim countries in the future is worrying.

To further support my contention, the report finds, one quarter of Muslims interviewed have doubts about the minority’s identification with the countries they live in. I’d suggest that on the ground that figure is much higher.

- To further complicate the discourse, one fears that even if the Muslim was to cede theological positions etc, there would be no tangible change in relations. Why do I say that? People cite figures such as Tariq Ramadan who was criticised by many Muslims as “selling out” by demanding that Muslims embrace a more secular position with respect to their religion, to the extent that well-established theological positions were “rationally” challenged. Yet not too long after, we see Ramadan forced to criticise European leaders for what he saw as non-reciprocation as such. He said, not at the same time as suggested by the report but afterwards, that “society must shoulder “its duty of consistency”.” Surely, this is an embarrassing realisation on behalf of those Muslims who’d espouse secular policies not recognised by orthodoxy.

Moreover, the Muslim observes the continuing problem of racism towards minorities, which at the operative level for us, has nothing to do with “the fear of Islam”. Likewise, the furore over immigration and in particular the “new Pakis” whom you might know as Polish immigrants, a practising Christian population, only further reinforces the belief that “integration” will not be enough. We’ll need to become white-skinned, lose any trace of accents and suddenly find records of land ownership back to the good old medieval days before we’re finally accepted. Oh, and putting our religion aside would be useful too.

These are some of the points that articulate the challenge that faces the “West” in its attempt to make their citizens feel more at home.

As for the Muslims themselves, then as I mentioned briefly at the previous session of the C-100, they have got to stand up and be counted. We have to address our lack of interaction with wider society, what I believe to be the number one deficiency in this discourse from the Muslim side and thus likewise the single factor that will make the biggest difference.

If the Muslims want to give themselves the best chance of being seen as loyal citizens by at least a large number of the good people of Europe, they have to come out of their shell and start to become more human, more normal, and more compassionate with their neighbours. The exasperating thing for us is that Islam demands such behaviour from its adherents as a basic obligation.

With respect to interaction, clearly this is easier for Muslim males to do because the Muslim woman isn’t as visible in society as perhaps the non-Muslim woman for the reasons that are well-known under Islamic theology and jurisprudence; yet this is no excuse for incidents of Muslim women for example trying to second-guess answers on newly-introduced citizenship tests such as in the UK, something which although flawed in places, is a good idea in principle and could be worked upon to make it more relevant. I have come across Muslim women who have absolutely no intention of benefitting by or indeed benefitting others with the useful knowledge, culture and history to be picked up from preparation for such tests and this only goes to show the fear and reluctance of some quarters of the Muslim community to interact.

The lack of social, educational and just celebratory events organised together, the continual emphasis on denigrating the other in religious discourse in the absolute sense, the cultural difficulty (and it is cultural and not religious) problem of getting women to vote and express their opinion: these are all valid areas that require the Muslim community to work on, without having to insist on the secularisation of the religion, or the relaxing of what “hijab” means or forcing liberalism down the throat of a proud, conservative theological people like the Muslims are.

Both sides have got a lot more to do and a lot more trust to earn. I honestly believe that there is a bright future as our third generation come forth into a new world of respect and pluralism yet at the same time preserving their orthodoxy and values.

I look forward to a fruitful discussion.

And God knows best.