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Islam in Europe – The Exception to the Rule?, by Olivier Roy

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Supporting Grassroots Developments

We should not expect too much from a dialog between major religious and governmental institutions. The development of Islam in Europe is taking place at the grassroots level, not in books or resolutions. Instead of fighting, we need to accompany the autonomizing of religions, which means that political forces must not interfere with theology (that would mark the end of the separation of the State and the Church). On the contrary, we should support the religious independence of European Islam from the cultures of the relevant countries of origin.

It would be desirable for Muslims to establish relations with the other religions practiced in Europe. This is more important than fostering relations with the countries of the Near and Middle East. Instead of debating the role of Islamic schools (madrassas) with Egyptian or Pakistani authorities or the training of imams, we should encourage the establishment of such institutions in Europe. The attempt to make Islam a European religion should not focus on dogmas but on the autonomy and integration of Islam as an "ordinary” religion (not as a culture) in a diverse – not multicultural – Europe.

Migration has born uprooted people and rebels who are devoted to their causes. It has also born a middle class, intellectuals and a bourgeois class who expect to be able to live as Muslims and Europeans. They are the ones society needs to turn to, aside from all the security considerations and strategic thinking, because they embody the future.

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Further articles on the subject » Religion, » EU Policy, » Weltanschauung, » Europe
More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » EU Policy, » Weltanschauung, » Europe