The Need for a European Melting Pot
As of November 29, 2009 following a referendum held in Switzerland, a ban on the construction of minarets was passed with 57% in favor. The ban is just the latest in a series of Islamophobic reactions coming out of Western Europe. Switzerland has 400,000 Muslims and four minarets and Swiss Muslims are among the best integrated in Europe.
Ironically this was condemned by the French who claimed that intolerance should not be tolerated, yet France earlier on September 2, 2004 had banned the wearing of symbols or clothing that showed religious affiliation in public primary and secondary schools. The ban included headscarves, crosses, kippah and turbans. The penalty for continuing to wear these were initially being sent home, but continued violation would result in meeting with the parents and ultimately expulsion from school. France has a rather strong style of secularism, the idea laciete calls for not just freedom of religion, but due to France’s history complete separation of religion from all aspects of public life. Perhaps taken in isolation these instances wouldn’t be particularly concerning, however a wave of such legislation is being passed in Western Europe.
Belgian municipalities have used municipal by-laws to ban the wearing of the burka and niqab. A Belgian town Maaseik was the first to implement such a ban. Regulations were then sent to all Flemish municipalities to ban facial coverings on the basis that it was necessary “ to protect the social order, which allows a harmonious process of human activities.” In 2008 the Danish government decided that judges in court would no longer be able to wear any religious symbol including headscarves and crucifixes. Half of the German states have placed restrictions on wearing headscarves however five of these states allow Christian religious clothing such as a nun’s habit to be worn. A regulation upheld in the state court despite its blatantly discriminatory nature. Two students that appeared at school wearing the burqa were suspended for “disturbing the peace.”
In 2006 the Dutch government strongly considered banning the burqa entirely. Amsterdam and Utrecht proposed cutting social security benefits to unemployed women who wore the burqa on the basis that they were unemployable. In Britain an employment tribunal ruled that a school could fire a teacher because she wore the veil, Tony Blair and British minister Phil Woolas personally demanded that teacher in question be fired, and she was. A ban on the niquab in schools is also being proposed by British authorities. The far-right parties of Europe like the BNP in the UK are often the strongest advocates of such legislation, yet they find broad support among the general population.
Certainly when one takes all this attempted legislation together it indicates a strong amount of paranoid xenophobia among the Western European states and its hard to imagine such legislation passing in the United States. First, however, let me get the following out of the way, by no means should we condone what Saudi Arabia, Iran, or the Taliban do when they enforce the facial veil, headscarves, burqa, or niquab on their women. Such actions are deplorable and their disgusting treatment of women should be strongly condemned by the international community. However by doing the opposite extreme these European states act no better than any of the autocratic states that we look down upon.
On some level one can understand why this type of legislation is being advocated. Europe has found itself faced with the problem of how it should go about integrating its religious minorities. The question here is really the paradox of a liberal society. A liberal society ideally would allow anyone to hold whatever beliefs they wanted because that’s the nature of the liberal society.
The problem, as the Europeans see it, is when immigrants want to change the nature of the liberal society and turn it into something else. Ideally that should be allowed also. But what if the immigrants are all monarchists and want to establish a monarchy with a God-Emperor who rules with absolute power and destroy liberal democracy? Is that something we really want to allow? And what if they want to take away rights from women, or homosexuals? Is that something we should allow also? The majority of us who live in a liberal democratic society would say no, that such things should not be tolerated.
The people and governments of Western European countries, by supporting legislation such as banning the burka, seem to believe that the Muslim immigrants are incompatible with the liberal democratic values they believe in, that they’re radicals who want to impose Sharia law and oppress women. Feminists in particular believe that women who wear the veil, headscarves, burqa, and niquab are being oppressed by the men and being forcibly segregated from the rest of European society. Such attitudes are shockingly widespread among citizens of European countries. There are a few radicals who may support this perhaps, but I would venture that the majority of Muslims in Europe moved there not to change it but because they sought a better life in a new country, as is frequently the case with new immigrants.
Certainly some concerns are valid. Yet the solution of banning symbolic displays of Islam is misguided, bigoted, counterproductive, and odious to the very freedom and democracy that it ostensibly seeks to protect. Europe fears the radicalization of its Muslim population yet when it passes these discriminatory measures all it does is further isolate and inflames Muslims. Europe seeks to protect democracy and freedom yet it attempts to regulate the clothing of what its citizens may and may not wear. This is without a doubt one of the most slippery slopes I have seen, the logical result of this is to next pass legislation against a Goth with black makeup and piercings cover their face because they segregate themselves from society and make themselves unemployable. Once the government chooses to enter the private lives of its citizens then there is no stopping it. The wearing of a headscarf by a woman when she wears it willingly harms no one, and the construction of a minaret does not endanger Switzerland. If there are concerns about women being forced to wear it against their will then prosecute men who force their wives to do so, if there are concerns that radical preachers are advocating violence then arrest them for advocating violence. But targeting the headscarf and the minaret achieves nothing and is merely discrimination. Europe’s attitude toward Muslims is clearly a problem. Yet some of their concerns are valid regarding integration of Muslims. So what is the solution for it?
To discard the flawed notion of multiculturalism. Right now you are probably staring at the page in shock. Multiculturalism calls for tolerance of the group’s rights and in some cases the accordance of special privileges to the group. Take the Canadian notion of a tossed salad. That each immigrant group retains its culture, its beliefs, and values and they all add to the Canadian cultural mosaic. That has worked well for Canada yet when the European attempt to apply it has failed miserably, and I predict it will fail in Canada too. This idea of multiculturalism is entirely misguided; it is not groups we should be concerned about. It is individuals. The beliefs and culture of all individuals should be tolerated and respected. It is the individual that matters not the group. The mistake we make is when we create a group and give them special privileges.
The mistake we have been making all along is encouraging multiculturalism when we should have been encouraging assimilation. The United States is not a multicultural country. You’re probably staring at the page in shock again. It’s true. The dominant paradigm we hold, that we were told of in elementary school is the American Melting Pot ™ , each immigrant can maintain their traditions, culture, religion, and beliefs, each immigrant adds their own flavor, but all of them become Americans. Muslims can wear headscarves, Christians can wear their crucifixes, Jews can wear their kippah. Yet all immigrants learn English, adopt American values and adopt American culture. This is the model that the United States has followed since the time of its independence. Irish, Italian, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Cubans, Iranians, and Mexicans have all immigrated to America in large numbers.
They retain their own cultures and religions yet they think of themselves as American first. Of course this doesn’t go without a hitch; there are hiccups, from anti-Catholic sentiments to anti-Mexican sentiment. However, such views are time and time again proven wrong and each new group becomes a valuable and integrated part of American society.
For perhaps the first time, Europe should look to the US as a model. Europe lacks the same history of immigration that the US has. It has failed to impart a sense of “European-ness” into its immigrants. If Europe wishes to integrate its Muslims then it needs a melting pot. A melting pot that can meld its immigrants together into a coherent and functional whole, which can give rise to a peaceful society that, maintains individual freedoms and liberties while at the same time protecting the nature of a liberal society. This is the goal that all societies and governments must strive toward.
