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5 Muslims as a “Religious Minority” in Europe

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Formations of the Secular
This chapter is in the book Formations of the Secular
Muslims are clearly present in a secular Europe and yet in an im-portant sense absent from it. The problem of understanding Islam in Eu-rope is primarily, so I claim, a matter of understanding how “Europe” isconceptualized by Europeans. Europe (and the nation-states of which itis constituted) is ideologically constructed in such a way that Muslim im-migrants cannot be satisfactorily represented in it. I argue that they areincluded within and excluded from Europe at one and the same time ina special way, and that this has less to do with the “absolutist Faith” ofMuslims living in a secular environment and more with European no-tions of “culture” and “civilization” and “the secular state,” “majority,”and “minority.”I take it for granted that in Europe today Muslims are often misrep-resented in the media and discriminated against by non-Muslims.1Moreinteresting for my present argument is the anxiety expressed by the major-ity of West Europeans about the presence of Muslim communities and Is-lamic traditions within the borders of Europe. (In France, for example, apoll showed that two-thirds of the population feared the presence ofIslam in that country.2) It’s not merely that the full incorporation of Mus-lims into European society is thought to be especially hard for people whoMuslims as a “Religious Minority”in Europe5.See J. Wrench and J. Solomos, eds., Racism and Migration in Western Eu-rope, Oxford: Berg, , and especially the excellent contribution by S. Castles..See A. Hargreaves, Immigration, Race and Ethnicity in ContemporaryFrance, London: Routledge, , p. .
© 2020 Stanford University Press, Redwood City

Muslims are clearly present in a secular Europe and yet in an im-portant sense absent from it. The problem of understanding Islam in Eu-rope is primarily, so I claim, a matter of understanding how “Europe” isconceptualized by Europeans. Europe (and the nation-states of which itis constituted) is ideologically constructed in such a way that Muslim im-migrants cannot be satisfactorily represented in it. I argue that they areincluded within and excluded from Europe at one and the same time ina special way, and that this has less to do with the “absolutist Faith” ofMuslims living in a secular environment and more with European no-tions of “culture” and “civilization” and “the secular state,” “majority,”and “minority.”I take it for granted that in Europe today Muslims are often misrep-resented in the media and discriminated against by non-Muslims.1Moreinteresting for my present argument is the anxiety expressed by the major-ity of West Europeans about the presence of Muslim communities and Is-lamic traditions within the borders of Europe. (In France, for example, apoll showed that two-thirds of the population feared the presence ofIslam in that country.2) It’s not merely that the full incorporation of Mus-lims into European society is thought to be especially hard for people whoMuslims as a “Religious Minority”in Europe5.See J. Wrench and J. Solomos, eds., Racism and Migration in Western Eu-rope, Oxford: Berg, , and especially the excellent contribution by S. Castles..See A. Hargreaves, Immigration, Race and Ethnicity in ContemporaryFrance, London: Routledge, , p. .
© 2020 Stanford University Press, Redwood City

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction: Thinking about Secularism 1
  5. SECULAR
  6. 1 What Might an Anthropology of Secularism Look Like? 21
  7. 2 Thinking about Agency and Pain 67
  8. 3 Reflections on Cruelty and Torture 100
  9. SECULARISM
  10. 4 Redeeming the “Human” Through Human Rights 127
  11. 5 Muslims as a “Religious Minority” in Europe 159
  12. 6 Secularism, Nation-State, Religion 181
  13. SECULARIZATION
  14. 7 Reconfigurations of Law and Ethics in Colonial Egypt 205
  15. Index 257
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804783095-007

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction: Thinking about Secularism 1
  5. SECULAR
  6. 1 What Might an Anthropology of Secularism Look Like? 21
  7. 2 Thinking about Agency and Pain 67
  8. 3 Reflections on Cruelty and Torture 100
  9. SECULARISM
  10. 4 Redeeming the “Human” Through Human Rights 127
  11. 5 Muslims as a “Religious Minority” in Europe 159
  12. 6 Secularism, Nation-State, Religion 181
  13. SECULARIZATION
  14. 7 Reconfigurations of Law and Ethics in Colonial Egypt 205
  15. Index 257
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