The Lone Eid Mubarak from the Netherlands: In search of the invisble Muslims in the West;

 

I returned home to an email that felicitated me on the eve of Eid Al Adha. Heart warming, the eid greeting was sent by a dear friend – a westerner with whom I have developed a great rapport,  considerable personal and social capital. It would, only a few years ago, be unthinkable, for westerners to know about Islam and the holy and important days of the Muslim calendar. Many westerners now know about Islam, Muslims and things that Muslims hold dear and value. This , unfortunately is not a trend and cannot be generalized.

 

Despite the presence of the huge Muslim diaspora in the West, most westerners are ignorant about Muslims. Whatever little the host societies know about Islam is mediated by the media. The media in its quest for ratings only reports the sensational and the ‘newsworthy’  This then brings to the western consciousness the negative aspects associated , for whatever reason, with Islam and Muslims.  This is ironical given that Muslims, to repeat, constitute a sizeable proportion of contemporary western societies. The question is: what, besides the media mediation and manipulation of images, explains this? And how can this problem be remedied and obviated?

 

There is no , ‘ one size fits all’ answer to these questions. Western , for want of a better world,  of Islam and Muslims is premised a host of factors. The salient of these are that the contemporary encounter of Islam with the west or the converse is a novel and rather unprecedented phenomenon. Termed and characterized as ,’ globalized Islam’, this phenomenon is novel in its scope, intensity and depth. It differs profoundly from Islam’s historical encounter with the west which was mediated by the sad saga of the Crusades and Imperialism. Both these have left lasting images of either in both the minds of Muslims and the west. Both , in the aggregate , tend to see each as the other’s Other. This is overlain by the fallacious assumptions and sterile assertions of Orientalism which, by design , portrayed Islam as the West’s other and operating on a philosophical terrain that was diametrically opposed to the West.

 

In conjunction and combination, these factors have created strong stereotypes about  Islam in the western collective imagination. The same albeit in a different permutation and combination caould be held true for Muslims. Colonialism and imperialism and the Crusades cast westerners in a negative light to Muslims and this is overlain by the obscurantist mullah’s depiction of westerners as infidels.

 

These images and mutual stereotypes that have formed and crystallized over the years have never really been addressed. To the contrary, westerner and Muslims find themselves in close proximity on account of the inexorable logic of globalization. This, instead of making either curious about the other has , in some senses, estranged them. The reasons for this estrangement are axiomatic: the nature and patter of immigration and the September 11 attacks on the United States account for much of this.

 

The latter is pertinent to Europe where much of immigration is class based. That is, most immigrants of Muslim stock come from rural backgrounds and are , by and large , uneducated. This impedes their integration into their host societies and also because of traditional and conservative attitudes and prevalent stereotypes, Muslim immigrants are loath to make en effort to reach out and understand their host societies. This is also overlain by racism and inability to put cultural differences into perspective by Europeans. This , as I have pointed out in my writings, is a peculiarly European disease.  Complementing this is the negative fallout of September II attacks wherein Muslims are tarred with the same brush. This leads to alienation and disaffection and their concomitant: ghettoization. Muslims and westerners in the west occupy and live in different mental and philosophical universes.

 

This condition needs to be remedied. The question is how? Perhaps the only effective way to allay the stereotypes upon which this condition is predicated upon is increased people to people contacts and interpersonal relationships. It these that can potentially obviate this condition and generate the much needed social capital for smooth functioning of contemporary western societies. This has to be a two way street wherein both Muslims and westerners take the initiative to understand each other. This non mediated and unstructured interaction needs to be iterated and repeated so that people of diverse backgrounds understand each other’s perspectives and value and talk to each other instead of talking at each other. We live in a globalized interconnected world where people of diverse backgrounds rub shoulders with each other on a quotidian basis. It is a travesty that these people remain perpetual strangers. This insalubrious condition needs to be reversed so that healthy, vibrant and dynamic societies are created and crystallized. Let us make haste slowly and bring about these new societies.