De Ruiter Sharing Lives

Overcoming Our Fear of Islam
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-3-7309-4767-8
Verlag: BookRix
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 191 Seiten

This book argues that the single greatest hindrance to Christian witness amongst Muslims in Europe is fear. Many European Christians fear that Europe will gradually turn into Eurabia, or Islamic domination of Europe, and they ignore the efforts of Muslims to adapt to the European context, a situation pointing to a future scenario of Euro-Islam, or Islam being Europeanized. The author argues that instead of an attitude of fear, which leads to exclusion, Christians should develop an attitude of grace, which leads to embrace. After analyzing books and courses developed to help Christians relate to Muslims, he concludes that these mostly concentrate on providing information and skills, instead of dealing with one's attitude. Because of this the author developed a short course to help Christians overcome their fear of Islam and Muslims and to encourage Christians to share their lives with Muslims and to share the truth of the Gospel with the purpose of attracting them to Christ. Bert de Ruiter (1958) works with OM Europe as Champion Muslim Ministries in Europe. Bert obtained a Master of Arts in World Evangelization and a Doctor of Ministry in Muslim-Christian relations. During the past 25 years Bert has been ministering in almost 50 countries around the world to help Christians share their lives with Muslims. Bert and his wife live in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and have two children and one grandchild.

Autoren/Hrsg.

De Ruiter, Bert

Leseproben

Chapter One
The Future of Islam in Europe Introduction One’s attitude to Islam colors one’s perception of the future of Islam in Europe and one’s perception of the future of Islam in Europe influences one’s attitude to Islam and Muslims. In this chapter I will look at two scenarios concerning the future of Islam in Europe, which are in opposition to each other. Eurabia is a term coined by the British-Swiss Jewish historian Bat Ye’or and de­scribes the expectation that Europe will be Islamized.[i] In contrast Euro-Islam is a concept introduced by Bassam Tibi, a Syrian born Muslim and German citizen, which sees Islam becoming Europeanized.[ii] An attitude of fear of Islam and Muslims is often caused by or gives support to the expectation of Europe becoming Eurabia. Not only among Europeans in general, but particularly among Chris­tians in Europe, the Eurabia scenario seems to receive more sup­port popular than the Euro-Islam scenario. For example, a ques­tionnaire carried out by me among several groups of Christians in the Netherlands, shows that 60 percent of the respondents agree with Geert Wilders, a Dutch MP and head of an extreme right par­ty, who warns against the growing Islamization of the Netherlands and Europe.[iii] In September 2008, I received an e-mail from a Dutch Christian citing examples of how Europe submits to the de­mands of Muslims.4 Those who expect the Eurabia scenario consider Islam to be a problem in Europe. They speak of a clash of civilizations pointing out that Islam threatens European values of secularization and freedom of speech. They refer to extreme Muslims who reject European values and who seek to establish a Khalifat in Europe in which the shari’a law becomes the constitution. People with an attitude of Islamophobia often agree with or only see indications that support a Eurabia scenario, but they seem unable or unwilling to see the developments that support a Euro-Islam scenario. Those who expect the Euro-Islam scenario point to Islam’s ad­aptation to Europe as seen in the emergence of Islamic political and civic leaders and associations. They point, as well, to changes in re­ligious authority, changes in describing Islam’s status as a minority culture, a desire for gender equality, and changes in interpreting the meaning of shari'a. In this chapter it will be argued that the majority of Muslims are willing to find their place in Europe. Therefore a Euro-Islam sce­nario is more likely than a Eurabian scenario. Nevertheless there often is reluctance on the part of European governments and citi­zens, including Christians, to create space for Islam and Muslims resulting in an attitude of cold tolerance.   Background on Islam in Europe Islam has increasingly become part of Europe’s social, cultural and political and religious landscape. In the course of a few dec­ades, it has become Europe’s second religion after Christianity. The arrival of millions of Muslims in Europe from the 1960s has permanently changed the future of Europe and has been called “the greatest religio-demographic change on the European conti­nent since the time of the Reformation”5 Since the 1950s Western Europe has seen the arrival of migrant workers and asylum-seekers, many of whom come from Muslim countries. For the first ten years the only arrivals were men of working age, whose main aim was to earn money to send back home and then to return home. This expectation never material­ized largely due to changes in immigration laws. They decided to stay in Europe and their families came to join them. This radically altered the structure of the Muslim community in Western Europe leading to new social and religious priorities and demands on the host community. In the Eastern part of Europe, the emergence of the Balkan Mus­lim population as an autonomous political actor is one of the ma­jor changes of the last decade. The Islamic religious institutions of the Balkans experienced a renewal of activity, creating their own political parties, newspapers, cultural associations and charitable societies or intellectual forums.6 European Muslims come primari­ly from countries formerly colonized or dominated by the most in­fluential European countries.7 Robert J. Pauly identifies the following key characteristics of Is­lam in Europe: Geographically, most Muslims are located in low-rent hous­ing in the suburbs on the peripheries of major urban centers in Europe. Demographically, Muslim communities in Europe are young­er and possess higher growth rates than is true of the Europe­an majority. Economically, Muslims face considerably worse economic circumstances than the majority of others living in Europe (e. g. high unemployment, resulting in perpetual struggle for subsistence, housing problems). Socially, the Muslim community in Europe is quite diverse when we look at their ethnic and cultural background and their religious denomination and practice.8   Future Scenarios When speaking of the future of Islam in Europe, two opposing scenarios dominate the media presentation, namely that of Eurabia and Euro-Islam. In the remainder of this chapter I will look at several religious, social, and political aspects of Muslims in Europe in order to get some clarity on which of the two scenarios is most likely to take place, or whether both miss the mark.   Eurabia Introduction This scenario expects that Europe will be Islamized. The term was originally coined by the British-Swiss Jewish historian Bat Ye’or in 2005 in her book Eurabia: the Euro-Arab axis to describe what she identified as a secret project between European politi­cians and the Arab world for the “Islamization” of Europe.[iv] Those who see this scenario as true, such as the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, historian Bernard Lewis, author Robert Spencer, and Dutch MP Geert Wilders, generally believe that Islam is hostile to and incompatible with the values of the western world. In the view of these advocates the presence of a substantial numbers of Muslims in Europe is a deliberate strategy which will produce the result that Muslims will form a demographic majority within a few generations, that all or most Muslims seek to Islamize Europe, and that part of the European political and cultural elite supports this goal. According to the worst-case Eurabian predictions, by the end of the twenty-first century, most of Europe’s cities will be overrun by Arabic-speaking foreign immigrants, much of the continent will be living under Islamic shari'a law, and Christianity will have ceased to exist or be reduced to a state of dhimmitude[v]. In the Eurabia scenario Christians and Jews will become oppressed minorities in a sea of Islam; churches and cathedrals will be replaced by mosques and minarets; the call to prayer will echo from Paris to Rotterdam and to London; and the remnants of “Judeo-Christian” Europe will have been reduced to small enclaves in a world of bearded Arabic-speakers and burka-clad women.[vi] Those who expect the Eurabian scenario consider Islam a prob­lem to modernization in Europe. They particularly speak of a clash of civilizations and describe how Islam threatens European values such as secularization and freedom of speech. Also the presence of extreme Islamists in Europe is used to support a Eurabian scenar­io. I will look at this scenario in more detail below.   Islam as a Perceived Problem European societies respond predominantly negatively to the growing visibility of Islam in their midst. Dr. Jocelyne Cesari, Re­search Associate at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies and vis­iting professor at Harvard University, who has done extensive re­search on Islam as a minority in secular and democratic contexts, believes that in Europe we can speak of “a meta-narrative on Is­lam” that portrays Islam “as a problem or an obstacle to modernization.”[vii]   A Clash of Civilizations? The advocates of Eurabia believe that the tensions in many European societies created by the arrival of millions of Muslims, is a result of a clash of civilizations.13 Others say it is a result of eth­nic and religious Muslim-Christian tensions in the West.14 Also many Christians consider Islam a threat to European civilization. A questionnaire that I conducted shows that 46 percent of the Christians agree with and another 33 percent did not explicitly dis­agree with the statement “Islam is a threat to our civilization.”15 Those who define the tense relationship between Islam and Europe as a clash of civilizations point out that there are differenc­es between cultures of Western and Islamic societies.16 Some, like Huntington believe such differences rest on political systems, for example democracy and its varied forms.[viii] Others consider social values, including gender equality and sexual liberalization and spe­cifically identified as homosexuality, abortion, and divorce, the main clash between the West and Islam.18 Those who fear or ex­pect a Eurabia, particularly refer to two values that people hold dear in Europe and which seem to be under threat due to the pres­ence of Muslims in Europe, namely secularism and freedom of ex­pression. Islam: A Threat to Secularization? The arrival of a large number of Muslims in Europe has reopen­ed the file on the relationship between the church and the...