Identity Crisis: Old Europe Meets New Islam

Europe's 18 million Muslims represent the continent's fastest growing religion; however this community of immigrants who share religious and ethnic bonds has largely failed to integrate into European societies founded on secular principles.

In the past year, there have been several high-profile flashpoints between secular Europe and its Islamic population, most prominently in France, which in the spring of 2004 passed a controversial law forbidding "conspicuous religious signs" or apparel, including Muslim headscarves, in its public schools.

The response to the various controversies has been varied and extreme, from proposals by German lawmakers to require prayers in mosques to be conducted in German, to calls from a Dutch politician to halt all non-Western immigration into Holland for five years.

However, such proposals are driven by dangerous and ill-conceived associations between Islam and terrorism, according to Dr. John R. Bowen, Dunbar-Van Cleve professor of sociocultural anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. The background assumption to relate the two automatically is wrong. "It's a non-starter," he says.

He argues that the main problem is that these governments, dictated by concerns over internal and external security, have veered from one extreme to another, from the neo-colonial paternalism of "Let the Muslims be Muslims because they will return home soon anyway" to "Get in line right now."

•	Identity Crisis: Old Europe Meets New Islam Frontline, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2005 Byline: Marlena Telvik