Are European Muslims Painting Themselves into a Corner?

Anti-Vlaams Blok poster, courtesy VEDEZE

By Farish A. Noor

It was recently reported that the far-right Belgian party Vlaams Blok has begun to court the support of the unlikeliest of constituencies: the Jews of Belgium. Despite the fact that the Belgian Court of Appeal had declared the party a criminal organisation (and the move was supported by the Belgian Supreme Court), and the party’s known links to both neo-Nazis in the present and extreme right-wing elements in the past, leaders of the Vlaams Blok like Frank Vanhecke have managed to broaden the party’s appeal to such an extent that it now sends shivers down the spine of many a Belgian liberal.

Capitalizing on popular fear and prejudice towards foreigners in general (so parochial is the Vlaams Blok that even Belgian Francophones are regarded as outsiders and interlopers) and racism towards Arab-Muslim migrants in particular, the propagandists of the Vlaams Blok have demonstrated a keen awareness of public insecurity and have exploited it to the maximum. In the wake of September 11th and the hegemonization of the so-called “war on terror,” Islamophobia has taken on an increasingly vitriolic and bellicose appearance and the routine harassment of Muslim minorities across Europe has increased.

The cherry on the cake, so to speak, has been the Vlaams Blok’s success in courting a number of Belgian Jews to their cause, rallying them behind the banner of protecting the nation from the infiltration of “Islamic militants” and “radical Islam” from abroad. Due in part to the failure of the leftist parties of Europe to address the issue of racial polarization adequately, the divisions in societies such as Belgium’s has grown even wider.

Today the support of a small section of Belgian Jews for the Vlaams Blok has to be studied in detail, as a case study of how communitarian politics inevitably ends up benefiting the status quo and serves only to further marginalize minority groups. A comparable example would be how some right-wing parties in Europe have managed to win the support of the gay/lesbian community, who have also been scared by the bogeyman of the radical Muslim fundamentalist, on the grounds that Islam’s stand on homosexuality would entail discrimination against gays should Muslims ever come to power.

That Europe’s Muslims can never ever come to dominate European society by virtue of their small numbers is often lost in the heat of the argument. Lost too is the fact that Europe’s Muslims are more often the victims of prejudice and hate-crimes rather than the perpetrators.

But the circulation of the stereotype of the “violent, irrational” Muslim fanatic bent on conquering the Western world is still something that is found in the mainstream media, from newspaper reports to pulp fiction. Though the image may be false, as an instrumental fiction it nonetheless serves very clear political objectives – in this case to create an alienated and demonized Other against which the rest of society can be rallied against. Hence the unlikely support that we see from some Belgian Jews for the Vlaams Blok, a party whose founders shared dubious links with the Nazis and Fascists of the mid-20th century.

The development in Belgium today also points to another distressing trend in the Muslim communities of Europe, notably the trend of some young Muslim groups to resort to the use of racist, communitarian and even violent rhetoric to get their point across. While it is undeniable that Europe’s Muslims have become the victims of routinized violence, discrimination and prejudice; it is also true that some Muslim groups have responded to this with the use of an equally inflammatory (and totally unjustified) rhetoric of confrontation. The tendency of some Muslim youth gangs to adopt the symbols of the Nazis and Fascists and to fall back on a discriminatory discourse of anti-Semitism when dealing with the issue of Israel-Palestine, for instance, comes to mind. In such cases the arguments against the wanton militarism and abuses of the Israeli regime are lost in the thunder and fury of racist rhetoric. Likewise the homophobic rhetoric of some Muslim leaders has served only to alienate Muslims even further, which is ironic considering the already marginalized status that Muslims have in European countries.

These developments underscore the need for European Muslims to understand the need for dialogue and co-operation. For some time now, Europe’s Muslims have been led (or represented) by leaders who have obstinately clung onto a communitarian discourse that pitted the Muslim community against the rest. Muslim concerns were painted as communitarian concerns, affecting a singular community whose internal diversity was undermined or erased in the process. Many of the self-proclaimed “spokesmen” of the European Muslim minorities spoke only for and of themselves and their immediate circle of followers; ignoring the fact that the European community they were addressing were more complex and diverse than they readily admitted.

The bottom line is that unless and until Europe’s Muslims learn that their problems – ranging from racism, violence to institutionalized discrimination – are the problems of European society as a whole, they will always be presented as the “Other” within. And as the Other, Europe’s Muslims will remain a vulnerable constituency: economically marginalized, politically weak, underrepresented and doubly stigmatized for that.

Muslim minorities the world over have to understand that their problems can only be addressed and solved in the context of a wider, broader civil society. It is in that civil space that Muslims will find their allies and friends, who are equally concerned about the problems of racism, discrimination and violence; and equally committed to addressing them. Crossing the boundary between Self and Other, and becoming part of the mainstream of European society, is therefore the first step out of the impasse that Europe’s Muslim minorities now face. But for this to happen, an internal critique that rejects the use of racist, bigoted and communitarian discourse-politics is the key.

Europe’s Muslims have to understand that they are part of Europe, and that they have every right to complain about how they are being treated. But these complains have to be articulated via an inclusive discourse that sees European Muslims as Europeans first.

Dr. Farish A Noor is a Malaysian political scientist and human rights activist.