German-SyrianBassam Tibi is considered the original coiner of the term "Euro-Islam",[15] which he used for the first time in his 1992 paperLes conditions d'une "Euro-Islam", published in 1995,[14] to describe a type of Islam that embraces Western political values, such asliberal democracy,religious pluralism,secularism,tolerance, and theseparation between religion and state.[16] He argues that Muslims in Europe must create a specific form of Islam that can coexist withEuropean values.[17] The term reflects a concept for the integration of Muslims as European citizens, often assuming aliberal and progressive interpretation based on the idea of Europeanizing Islam.[17] Tibi dissociates himself from theIslamists, who reject Euro-Islam; he estimates that they amount to 3–5% of the Muslims currently living in Europe. He says they are nevertheless a dangerous minority since they want to "hijack" the Muslim community and other values of civil society. More precisely, Tibi seeks to dissociate his reasoning on Euro-Islam from that ofTariq Ramadan, whom he considers a rival within Islam in Europe.[15]
Tibi speaks of the need of Muslims to become "European citizens of the heart".[18] Tibi insists that Euro-Islam meanssecularity, the acceptance of separation between religion and state, as well as that Muslims living in Europe should embrace European values.[1] As contrast he sees theghettoization of the Muslims with potential for conflict.[17] Therefore, Euro-Islam is for Tibi a way out from the issue of theethnicization of Muslim migration in Europe and a democratic alternative to the so-called "ethnicity of fear".[17][19] Despite his efforts for the establishment of European Islam, after 25 years of leadership towards promoting it as adriving force of reform among Muslims living in Europe, Bassam Tibi in 2016 announced "I capitulate" in the Germanpolitical magazineCicero, stating that the "headscarf Islam" has triumphed over the "Euro-Islam".[20]
Tariq Ramadan is erroneously considered to be one of the coiners of the term "European Islam".[15] Ramadan calls for creating a new European-Muslim identity in his bookTo Be a European Muslim (1999).[9][21] He demands participation of Muslims in social and cultural life in conformation with European culture and Muslim ethics and says Muslims should disassociate themselves fromSaudi Arabia[22] andIslamic terrorism. He also thinks that European Muslims "need to separate Islamic principles from their cultures of origin and anchor them in the cultural reality of Western Europe."[23] However, Ramadan says that "Europeans also must start considering Islam as a European religion."[24]
Maria Luisa Maniscalco, professor of Sociology at the University of Roma Tre, in her book "European Islam. Sociology of an encounter", considers that in a process of "Europeanisation" of Muslims and "Islamization" of Europe, directions of change are diverse.[25] While family law, the status of women, religious freedom, social justice and criminal laws are still areas of high controversy within Islam, in Europe and elsewhere, and in comparison with European societies, attempts to Islamize modernity performed in European territory and in dialogue with Europe express creativity and innovation capacity. According to Maniscalco, when different segments of the Muslim world in Europe propose themselves and act as "active minorities", being able to take leadership and provide new impetus towards a dynamic and positive meeting, this will be significant for the future of Europe.[26]
Xavier Bougarel, research fellow at theCentre national de la recherche scientifique in the Ottoman and Turkish Studies unit, thinks thatBalkan Muslims are playing an important role in shaping Islam in Europe towards a European Islam. With the possibleEU enlargement towards the Balkans, about eight million Muslims would become EU citizens, doubling the number of Muslims in the EU-27 bloc.[27] Bougarel explores Balkan Islam which is often called "European Islam" because it resulted from indigenous and largely secularized in opposition to "a non-European Islam" that embody not only the predominantly Muslim countries but also the Muslim populations newly settled in Western Europe. Xavier Bougarel proposes replacing these culturalist visions with an accurate comparison that takes into account the nuances of Islam in Western Europe and the Balkans.[28]
Jocelyne Cesari, Professor of Religion and Politics and Director of Research at Edward Cadbury Centre atUniversity of Birmingham, as well as President of European Academy of Religion,[29] says that while Islam is perceived as colliding with European secular values "Islam is simply a religion."[24] According to Cesari, Muslims need to reveal the "genuine tolerant face of Islam, to show its diversity and reveal to the world that an intellectual such asMuhammad Abduh is the best example for a modern thinker."[24]
Cesari talks of thesecularization of individual Islamic practices and of Islamic institutions, as well as the efforts Muslims are making to maintain the relevancy of Islamic legal systems and what she calls the "gender jihad".[30] She thinks that Islam should be merged into European culture and that Islamic culture should be added to Europe's educational curricula.[24] She has also held post as research associate at theCenter for Middle Eastern Studies atHarvard University and director ofIslamopedia Online.
Jørgen S. Nielsen, professor of Islamic studies at theUniversity of Copenhagen, says that "Europeanizing" Islam "requires changes in relations between the sexes, in relations between parents and children, significant changes in attitudes to people of other religions, and in attitudes toward the State."[31] Nielsen believes that this is happening. While only a minority of Muslims are assimilating completely with secular European culture, "the majority are sticking to their religion but divorcing it from the cultural tradition and redressing it in a new culture." Nielsen also argues that the emergence of a European Islam is not only linked to the Muslim communities in Europe, but also to structures inherited from European society and the State.[32]
Following thefailed car bomb attacks in London and thefailed Glasgow airport attack in June 2007, theEuropean Commission started pooling ideas on how to tackle radical Islam and create a "European Islam", i.e. an Islam which is a more tolerant "European" branch of the faith.[33] EU home affairs commissionerFranco Frattini also sent out an 18-question survey asking EU member states how they address violent radicalisation, mainly related to an abusive interpretation of Islam.[clarification needed] In addition, Mr Frattini wants to pursue and further the idea of establishing a so-called "European Islam" or "Islam de l'Europe" – something floated by France's then interior ministerNicolas Sarkozy in 2006.[33]
^abcClayer, Nathalie (2004). "Les musulmans des Balkans Ou l'islam de "l'autre Europe"/The Balkans Muslims Or the Islam of the "Other Europe"".Religions, pouvoir et société: Europe centrale, Balkans, CEI. Le Courrier de Pays de l'Est (in French).5 (1045). Paris: La Documentation française:16–27.doi:10.3917/cpe.045.0016.ISSN0590-0239 – viaCairn.info.
^See Tibi's article "A Migration Story: From Muslim Immigrants to European "Citizens of the Heart?"" in:The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs Vol. 31 (Winter 2007) 1: 191–210.
^On the ethnicization of Islam in Europe see Tibi's chapter in Roland Hsu (Ed.), Ethnic Europe: Mobility, Identity, and Conflict in a Globalized World, Stanford University Press, 2010, pp. 127–156; also Bassam Tibi, "Ethnicity of Fear? Islamic Migration and the Ethnicization of Islam in Europe," in: Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2010, pp. 126–157.
^"Islamologe Bassam Tibi: "Ich kapituliere"".Cicero (in German).Berlin. 26 May 2016.ISSN1613-4826. Retrieved21 January 2021.Der Islamologe und gebürtige Syrer Bassam Tibi sieht keine Chancen mehr für einen europäischen Islam. Im Magazin Cicero (Juni-Ausgabe) schreibt er, dass der „Kopftuch-Islam" über den „Euro-Islam" gesiegt habe: „Den Euro-Islam wird es nicht geben. Ich kapituliere." Sein Essay ist der erste Teil einer neuen Cicero-Serie mit dem Titel: „Gehört der Islam zu Deutschland?"
Bustanov, A. K.; Kemper, M. (2012). "From Mirasism to Euro-Islam: The Translation of Islamic Legal Debates into Tatar Secular Cultural Heritage".Islamic Authority and The Russian Language: Studies on Texts from European Russia, the North Caucasus, and West Siberia. Pegasus Oost-Europese studies. Vol. 19.Amsterdam: Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR) –University of Amsterdam. pp. 29–53.hdl:11245/1.376465.ISBN9789061433705.S2CID132614050.
Clayer, Nathalie (2004). "Les musulmans des Balkans Ou l'islam de "l'autre Europe"/The Balkans Muslims Or the Islam of the "Other Europe"".Religions, pouvoir et société: Europe centrale, Balkans, CEI. Le Courrier de Pays de l'Est (in French).5 (1045). Paris: La Documentation française:16–27.doi:10.3917/cpe.045.0016.ISSN0590-0239 – viaCairn.info.
El Ayoubi, Mostafa; Paravati, Claudio, eds. (2018).Dall'islam in Europa all'islam europeo: La sfida dell'integrazione. Biblioteca di testi e studi (in Italian). Vol. 1177.Rome: Carocci Editore.ISBN9788843091072.
Bougarel, Xavier; Clayer, Nathalie, eds. (2001).Le Nouvel Islam Balkanique. Les Musulmans, acteurs du post-communisme, 1990–2000 (in French). Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose.ISBN2-7068-1493-4.
Popović, Alexandre (1986).L'Islam balkanique: les musulmans du sud-est européen dans la période post-ottomane. Balkanologische Veröffentlichungen (in French). Vol. 11.Berlin: Osteuropa-Institut an der Freien Universität Berlin.ISBN9783447025980.OCLC15614864.
