Islam and Fundamental Rights in Europe

1) What is the attitude of European Muslim communities toward Fundamental Rights? First the discourse and theological approach on Human Rights has to be distinguished from its practice. The dominant discourse of European Muslims on Human Rights reflects the vast apologetic trend that attempts to demonstrate the compatibility of Human Rights and Islam. Some more innovative voices are trying to address the gap between the Islamic tradition and the Fundamental Rights but they seem to still be in a minority, albeit growing. However, this domination of a conservative public discourse on Human Rights does not automatically imply acceptance by most Muslims of the Human Rights agenda on a daily basis. Rather acceptance is revealed in our study of the adjustment of Islamic prescriptions to the requirement of secularized civil law and particularly in issues such as equality between genders.

2) Such an evolution at the grass root level is often neglected due to the emphasis on Islam and politics imposed by national and international agendas. The irony is that there is no influence (not to mention basic knowledge) of documents such as the Cairo Declaration or the Islamic Declaration of Human Rights among Muslims in Europe. The main concerns of European Muslims seem to be: forced marriages, equality of women in marriage, divorce, custody of children and discrimination that they face (Islamophobia).

3) Hence, the major area of conflicts between Islam and Human Rights is not politics but on Civil Law and culture as demonstrated in the debate over secularism and Islam. The highest divergence between Muslims and non-Muslims seem to concern the questions of morality and sexuality as shown in the debate over the headscarf but also on the question of sexual orientation.

4) Our research shed light on the evolving status of Muslim women. A silent revolution is happening: women are more and more involved in the critique of a 4 patriarchal discourse often presented as Islamic discourse as demonstrated in our case study on forced marriages in the United Kingdom. There is however the same socio-economic and educational divide among women as among men. In other words, a large sector of the Muslim female population is lacking social and cultural capital and is therefore less vocal. Perhaps due to this, they cannot or do not want to challenge the dominant conservative male narrative.

5) The influence of very conservative or radicalised strands of thought among some of the Muslim youth in Europe is an obstacle to the relationship between the HR discourse and Islam. The rejection of the cultural and political principles of the West spread out through booklets, videos and web sites is not without its effects and should be acknowledged.

6) The consequence lies in the tension between the two poles of the western Muslim communities: one, reformist and open to influence; the other conservative and much less interactive. The evolution of this tension will be determined not only by Muslims themselves, but also by the various policies of western governments for the integration and institutionalization of Islam.

7) The major cause of misunderstanding between Muslims and non-Muslims concerns the recognition of Islamic specificity in the different European societies. The important question raised by the Muslim presence in Europe is: how the protection of specific subcultures can favour individual emancipation instead of stifling it? The Rushdie Affair was an illustration of such a dilemma when British Muslims claimed the right of Islam to be protected by the Blasphemy Law (that applies only to Anglicanism). Sometimes, Islamic groups collectively request rights that limit individual freedom. However, our report demonstrates that the largest trend is adaptation, accommodation and bricolage. “If we simplify to an extreme, we can state that minority rights are compatible with cultural liberalism when a) individual freedom is protected within the group, and b) they promote equality, and not domination, between groups within the different European societies.”1 In the case of Muslims, it would seem that the first condition has been met. The second condition is the most problematic since Islam as religion and a culture is still perceived as alien and external to Europe. To promote equality between cultures involves a redefinition of public culture and the status of Islam within this public culture both at the level of the Nation States and the European Union. In the post 9/11 context, some of the Muslim claims champion the European conception of Human Rights, for example by arguing that laws such as the bans on religious symbols from French public schools is contradictory to Fundamental Rights.