Resilient Islam: Muslim Controversies in Europe (A More Perfect Union‪)‬

Recently, public policy debates over the political accommodation of ethnic minorities of migrant origin in Europe have focused on Muslims. The real or perceived difficulties Muslims face in adapting to the Western societies in which they have chosen to settle is an electoral issue for radical right populist parties, including the Front National in France, the Lijst Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands, the Vlaams Blok in Belgium, and the Det Konservative Folkepartei in Denmark. There has been a shift from multicultural towards more civic integrationist governmental policies in Britain, and also in the Netherlands, which had previously gone furthest towards transforming multicultural principles into policies. In Britain, US-style citizenship rituals now allow migrants to express their allegiance when becoming naturalized Britons, while, as of July 2004, Dutch migrants will only receive funding for education in Dutch, not in their native language. In addition, the real threat of terrorist atrocities by Islamic extremists in European cities after the March 2004 bombings in Madrid has made a fresh negative impact on the public imagination regarding Muslim migrants and their descendants on European soil. At the same time, attempts by Muslim organizations to condemn terrorism ring hollow against the speeches of a small minority of extremist Islamic clerics. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]