This book deals sensitively with the question of the place of Muslims in western Europe. It considers the issue from a number of perspectives, such as schools, courts, hospitals, the military, electoral politics, the labour market and civic education. The contributors are mainly academics but include a director of international relations.
The first chapter sets out the approach to grouping Muslims and begins by detailing the negativity that Islam has endured over the last 15 years or so. It is made clear from the outset that the contributors do not seek to establish whether institutions try to provide more or less accommodation to Muslims; rather the aim is to provide an analytical framework which emphasises the differing and complex dimensions of this question. Realistically, the book does not try to provide a comprehensive account of every country in western Europe. Instead, a holistic approach is adopted, using models representative of different countries.
Chapter 2 considers ‘Hospitals as sites of cultural confrontation and integration in France and Germany’. It does not focus on Muslims per se, but on immigrants from the West African Senegal river valley residing in France and on Turkish immigrants living in Germany: ‘we analyze cultural confrontation and integration among immigrants, many of whom are Muslim’ (p 29). In relation to hospitals in France and West African women, the focus is on the experience and mind-set of midwives. Interestingly, in the analysis of Turkish immigrants in Germany the contributors begin with the premise that a Muslim woman could be discriminated against for a number of reasons other than being Muslim: ‘as female, as pregnant, as Turk, as African, as pious or agnostic, as rich or poor, university educated or occupationally trained’ (p 39). The conclusion is that many factors are indeed deployed by hospital staff when dealing with Muslim patients.
Chapter 3 deals with schooling: ‘State-supervised schooling is the quintessential mechanism by which nation-states turn children into citizens and individuals into political persons’ (p 54). The four models considered are Dutch, French, German and British. The contributor recognises that the issues at stake in each of the schools were similar in nature and revolved around the question of how to manage diversity.
Chapter 4 addresses the question of French ‘Muslim’ soldiers. It is based on findings of two studies commissioned by the French Defence Ministry in 2003 and 2007 and is perhaps a little dated. The interviews conducted with Muslim military personnel make fascinating reading. For example, a number of high-ranking soldiers appear to have used the military to enfranchise themselves from their racial and ethnic stigmas. The contributor found that most of the Muslims he interviewed considered that ethnicity and religion must remain a non-issue in an institutional setting, such as the military which de-emphasises ethnicity and race as much as other social or ideological affiliations. The contributor not only considers the role of Muslims in routine military interactions but also how non-Muslim personnel view their Muslim colleagues. Franck, a 29-year-old white French NCO in the Navy, offers his views on the integration of Muslims in the military and the contributor comments: ‘When we look at the routine on-the-ground interactions among members of the institution, the military appears neither as a site of sociocultural diversity nor of universalism’ (p 93).
In Chapter 5, the contributors consider the place of Muslims in schools and hospitals in France. Unlike Chapter 1, the focus is not on one particular ethnic group but rather on one particular issue affecting many ethnicities within one religion: the headscarf debate. The author found that, in both institutions, staff were constantly called on by exigencies of their institutional lives to find ways of accommodating demands while accomplishing their tasks.
Chapter 6 analyses the interaction of Muslims in western European courtrooms and varying approaches of the judiciary. The two countries used as models are France and Germany and the subject specifically considered is Islamic marriage and divorce. The authors rightly identify that: ‘When Muslims with foreign nationality approach the courts, a major determinant of the outcome, and indeed how the case is framed in legal terms, is how the country's legal system understands the connections between people and a legal order’ (p 143). They also touch on the approach of courts in countries other than France and Germany. For example, it is mentioned that, despite British colonial rule accepting and even preserving Islamic legal institutions in countries under British power, the approach of the judiciary to the issue of polygamy was far less flexible than in German courts. The chapter also looks at more controversial topics such as wife-beating in sharia.
In Chapter 7, the author gives a comparative analysis of the content of civic education courses in France and Germany. It is interesting to see the differing approach in the two countries but also the similarity in the issues where Muslims, particularly, are vulnerable, such as: the relationship between the state and religion, freedom and tolerance, the promise that women are equal to men, and the acceptance of the supremacy of individual liberties over collectivist claims.
Chapter 8 considers minorities in electoral politics in Sweden, France and Britain. Much weight is given to ethnic, black and female candidates and the chapter would have been better served by focusing specifically on the place of Muslims in electoral politics. Chapter 9 focuses entirely on the headscarf debate in Scandinavia, providing insight into the differences between the debates in public and private institutions.
Finally, in Chapter 10, the contributors examine the Netherlands as a visible instance of a European exclusivist ‘neocultural’ setting, framing migrants as outsiders who must either assimilate into or be actively excluded from the ‘modern’ moral universe. Sexual politics are explored from the perspective of a religious leader whose interview was televised and caused commotion when he attempted to answer the often controversial question of ‘What Islam says about homosexuality’. While the Imam labelled homosexuality as a ‘contagious disease that had to be contained’, the contributors do not balance this single extreme view with the opinions of mainstream, tolerant Muslims.
The book is rich in discussion from a number of diverse contributors and, though some of the research on which the analysis is based is dated, the interviews are insightful and intriguing. With the recent renewed influx of immigrants from Muslim countries such as Syria and Afghanistan, this book provides an increasingly important academic window onto understanding the current place of Muslims in western Europe and the range of problems which they raise for Western legal systems.
