Balancing the European with Muslim

 

A Bournemouth cleric urges European Muslim women not to abandon their faith into fit into the European ideal.

Ex-assistant Imam Osman Abubakr cautions Muslim women from being threatened by the anti Islamic sentiment in European countries.

He said: “Muslims must not weaken, and not comprise (their faith) their tenets and matters of the religion all, if someone just comes up to them and attacks them verbally and they go back and take that scarf off or change their names or change their identity. They shouldn’t, they should be proud [of their faith]”

 

Though 2008 is the year of Intercultural dialogue, European Muslim women are already acknowledging the duality of their identities.

The European Union plans to focus on ‘integrating Muslims communities into Europe and preserving essential European values like tolerance, diversity and peaceful dialogue.’

The EU’s Berlin Declaration defines individual human dignity and equality of men and women as tenets of a ‘common ideal.’

Editor of Emel Magazine, Sarah Joseph said: “ For me I never found a distinction between Islam and European values, however I am weary of Islam managing to tick a 21st century box of liberalism. You end up being apologetic, just so you can fit in.”

However some say that the intercultural dialogue already exists and that integration is a two part process.

PA to chief executor at the British Muslim Heritage Centre, Fatima Mahmood said: “both cultures have a lot to contribute positively to European living and European lifestyle in general.”

This was echoed by the ex assistant Imam Abubakr.

He said: “We must understand that Islam is dynamic, it is easy and applicable in any place at all times.”

At the conference of Imams in 2006, European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner spoke Europe is suffering from a class of ignorance rather than a clash of cultures.

The ex Director General of the UN, Kofi Annan said: “The problem is never the faith, it is the faithful and how we behave towards each other.” That is a problem Europe has struggled with throughout history”