Islam in Europe

As readers of this blog are aware, I have been critical of French government efforts to banish headscarves from public buildings on the somewhat shakey grounds of defending equality and secularism. However, there is always another side to the story, as indicated by Cees Pelgrim, who teaches at the Christelijke Hogeschool in Ede, the Netherlands. Mr. Pelgrim writes the following, and I have edited his comments very slightly for greater clarity in English:

In the Netherlands there are developments similar to those in France (though we have a christian-conservative government). I can mention three events that have influenced the current climate in education and society in general:

1. We have had several cases of honour-murder. A father or brother has killed a daughter or sister because the family honour was damaged.

2. A few weeks ago a Dutch-Turkish 17-year-old boy killed a teacher in the school cafeteria because he was expelled from school.

3. We have had our own problems with the headscarf -- actually more of a burka-like garment with only the eyes uncovered. It took place in a big professional training centre for young people. Some Morrocan girls adopted the ways of the ultra-right of the muslim-movement. They were training to be classroom teachers and there they were totally in black, with only their eyes visible. The college sent them away, went to court and the judge said that burkas in professional situations were not permitted. In the aftermath of things like this even the Dutch orthodox christian party (which does not accept women as members) was brought to court.

I would not by any means wish to diminish the impact of such developments in the Netherlands and other European countries. Having visited both Europe and the middle east, I quite prefer, say, France and Germany to Egypt and Jordan. I would not wish to live in a culture in which Islam is the predominant influence. The political cultures of such countries are less than fully supportive of democracy and constitutional government. Saddam Hussein's rule may have been a particularly vicious form of tyranny, but virtually all of the middle east -- with the notable exception of Israel (but this raises further problems that I've addressed elsewhere) -- is under some sort of despotic régime. Moreover, I would not wish to see my wife, daughter or mother living under the rule of a religion that sees women in general as inferior and permanently subordinate to men. Finally, and most significantly, I as a Christian would not wish to live under the rule of those who would see me as a second-class citizen simply because my faith is at variance with theirs.

This inevitably raises the exceedingly touchy issue of immigration policy. Canada, the US and Australia are countries historically settled by immigrants from around the world, but mostly from Europe -- at least until recently. European countries are accustomed to thinking of themselves as more homogeneous and self-contained, but in recent decades they too have been accepting immigrants, apparently, from everything I've read, to offset the effects of a declining indigenous population. What would a just immigration policy look like? Although I myself am hardly an expert in this field, my hunch is that it would have to balance a number of considerations, including (though not in any particular order): (1) the legitimate aspirations of would-be immigrants from a variety of sending nations, (2) the needs of the domestic economy in the receiving nation, (3) the legitimate claims for maintaining the culture -- including political culture -- of the receiving nation, (4) the claims of legitimate refugees unable for any number of reasons to stay in their home countries, and (5) the ability of the host nation to assimilate immigrants.

One senses from Europeans, including Mr. Pelgrim, that immigrants from especially the islamic world are not assimilating into the host countries at all well. Indeed some of the rhetoric suggests very nearly a state of on-going warfare between the immigrant and host communities. There can, of course, be no general right of people from one part of the world to move to a host country and set up there a miniature version of their country of origin, with no intention of contributing to the public life of their new home. This is what we would call colonization, a phenomenon that supposedly died with the end of the imperial age after the Second World War. If this is what immigrants from islamic countries are indeed doing, then perhaps the receiving countries need to re-evaluate their own immigration policies and make adjustments accordingly.

As for the incidents Mr. Pelgrim mentions above, two of these obviously fall into the category of criminal acts and should be punished as such. There are laws in every country to deal with such things. It is far better to prosecute actual criminals than to make criminals out of ordinary citizens who are merely living out their religious convictions. Legally proscribing the wearing of headscarves in public buildings on the somewhat flimsy grounds of guaranteeing equality seems a needlessly provocative gesture against an unpopular religious community that is more likely to backfire than to ease assimilation.