Europe and the Muslim question

PARIS - With almost daily reminders of the urgency of their task, European countries are striving to integrate their Muslim minorities, but progress is hampered by ancient friction between Islam and Christianity and the notion of national identity.

About 15 million Muslims live in west Europe as a result of immigration to Britain and France from former colonies, the Turkish guest worker system in Germany and the flow into Italy from the Mediterranean.

Terror attacks, stabbings and shootings by radical Islamists, coupled with demands from Muslim groups for their religion to have a greater say, have prompted governments to ponder the risk of Islamism.

"There is no [existing] formula for co-existence between Islam and Europe," Dalil Boubakeur, a leading French Muslim, told the Financial Times. "Idyllic visions of permissiveness are no good. Authoritarian visions are no good either. Islam in the west is a real political problem."

Jytte Klausen, German author of a book, The Challenge of Islam: Politics and Religion in Western Europe, says there are fewer than 30 Muslim members of European parliaments today.

Britain's long state tradition of religious and racial tolerance has helped bring second-generation immigrants into the elite and also dampen the risk of a racial backlash after last July's terror bombings in London.

There are numerous Muslims now in the House of Lords and House of Commons and Asian news presenters, celebrities or sports stars are common.

The right to citizenship has also played a role. More than half of all Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and Indians born in Britain are citizens, and 75 per cent describe themselves as British.

Tolerance at public level is not so strong in France and Germany. In France, many Muslims are French citizens, although anecdotal evidence says many feel rejected or rootless.

In Germany, restrictive citizenship laws mean that only a small minority of ethnic Turks have become citizens. Of the 3.2 million resident adult Muslims in Germany, estimates say as few as 500,000 are naturalised.

However, they are working hard to give Muslims a voice through organisations, such as Germany's Central Council of Muslims, to compensate for poor representation in office.

This explains why France and Germany have debated whether - and how - to ban the burqa and crucifixes from state schools.

Germany could introduce the school uniform - until now mocked as oppressive or associated with the Hitler Youth of the Third Reich - to tackle the problem.

Almost every European country is making it tougher to gain citizenship for foreigners. They require, or are planning to require, applicants to undergo a language course and be familiar with the country's history, democracy and culture, especially when it comes to religious tolerance, gender equality and freedom of speech.

Support for multiculturalism in Europe is strong but often comes to an abrupt halt when it comes to Islam.

Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina, said in an address to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: "The East believes Islam is the answer and the West believes Islam is the problem."