Peace
Quran & Sunnah
An excellent talk by Dr. Tariq Ramadan.
Im sorry not being able to speak in German. I studied six years in Switzerland and my first PhD was on Nietzsche's philosophy, and I lost everything.
So this is the first thing to take which is not my example of forgetting a language that you have studied at school, and unfortunately Im obliged to speak in English.
I was asked to speak about a certain topic. Do we have to speak about being European Muslims or being Muslims in Europe?
And I think its not by accident, 15 years ago when I first wrote a book to be a European Muslim I got some reactions from my fellow Muslims saying: No you have to say being a Muslim in Europe.
I say No Im European by culture, and Im a Muslim by religion so Im a European Muslim. So its not to be a Muslim somewhere else. This is home for me, and this is home for you, and this is home for us.
Integration is a Word of the Past
As an introduction, I think its really important to face the reality of being Muslims or European Muslims in our countries. And I heard of course that your situation in Austria may be better than others in other European societies. Still, if you look at what is going on now in the mainstream media around the world and especially in Europe, what we have to say is that the coverage of Islam and Muslims is mainly negative. So the perception the people around have about Islam and Muslims is negative, and we are facing this everyday. Just arriving here, reading in a UK newspaper, The Times, an article saying the problem is not with radical Muslims, the problem is with Islam itself because radical Muslims are in fact following the true message of Islam.
You know that we have far-right parties and something which has been normalizing the discourse in Europe about this. So the Muslims have two choices: the first one is to say OK, look, the people around us dont like Muslims and they dont like Islam and to nurture something which is the victim mentality: They dont like us, they dont like Islam, let us be among ourselves, to withdraw among ourselves and to be Muslims far from the society. This is the wrong answer. This is exactly what far-right parties want in our European societies.
What the Muslims should do is to refuse the victim mentality. Its not a question to be liked or not to be liked. Its a question of rights, its a question of understanding, its a question of self-respect. Its to stand up for our responsibilities as citizens and as Muslims and to say Look, we are not going to accept you to target us and promote racism. Its now time to live together, to respect each other and to know each other. So to stand up for our responsibilities is the only right Islamic and positive answer that Muslims should promote and not the victim mentality which is sometimes around in the Muslim communities in Europe.
The second point is that what we have now normalized in the discourse is people coming to you and saying you Muslims and us as Europeans. This us vs. them is not acceptable. Im part of this new us, Im not outside Europe. Its us as Europeans and us as Europeans, Muslims, atheists, Jews, Christians and whatever you want to be, you are European.
So the problem here is to say Look, its a question of common values and common citizenship, and be careful because till now even though you are less advanced as to the history of the Muslim presence in Austria as for example in France or in other countries in Europe with decades of Muslim presence, we still have people say You have to integrate.
I think we have to be cautious with the concept of integration, because people are nurturing this You have to integrate, you have to integrate and nurturing in their own minds and in our minds that to be integrated still means that you are not part of us, so we are waiting for you to be part of us. What we have to say is We are sorry. We are already integrated. Our main concern today is not to be integrated, its to contribute to the future of our society.
So its different now. Integration is a word of the past. The word of the future and the word of the present is contribution; what could we give as Austrian citizens, European citizens to our country. Stop talking about integration. Talk about living together, acting together, and contributing together for the sake of our common future.
So the last point is really something that we have to say. Maybe some people dont want to listen to this: Islam is a European religion. Islam is part of the European landscape. By the way, its not new. For all the people who are now building a new past to Europe and saying We want to talk to you as people coming from outside we have to tell them Look, you have to revisit your own past, because its not true that the European history is only based on Greek or Roman and Judeo-Christian legacy. Its wrong. The past of Europe is Judeo-Christian-Islamic, and we are part of Europe for a long time. So what we are trying to do by our presence is to reconcile yourself with your own past, because by having a selective approach of your past you are building a selective present.
So this is something which is really important and this is our business to come to something which should be important in our curriculum in the schools. We have to integrate this past as part of the European legacy. If you put us outside your past it means that you have difficulties to consider us as part of your present. So we have to take this as something which is a deep challenge.
What I want to say is now not only to speak about our fellow-citizens, but as we are here as a very impressive gathering of the Muslim community, the Austrian Muslim community, is to come to something which is from within. What do we have to say to ourselves to move from a victim mentality to our responsibilities as Austrian Muslims and European Muslims?
continued below...
Tariq Ramadan: EU Muslims or Muslims in Europe?
Part 1 of Dr. Ramadan's talk in Austria on Islam as a European Religion, at the Salzburg Seminar. The session was entitled "Immigration and Inclusion: Rethinking National Identity
Im sorry not being able to speak in German. I studied six years in Switzerland and my first PhD was on Nietzsche's philosophy, and I lost everything.
So this is the first thing to take which is not my example of forgetting a language that you have studied at school, and unfortunately Im obliged to speak in English.
I was asked to speak about a certain topic. Do we have to speak about being European Muslims or being Muslims in Europe?
And I think its not by accident, 15 years ago when I first wrote a book to be a European Muslim I got some reactions from my fellow Muslims saying: No you have to say being a Muslim in Europe.
I say No Im European by culture, and Im a Muslim by religion so Im a European Muslim. So its not to be a Muslim somewhere else. This is home for me, and this is home for you, and this is home for us.
Integration is a Word of the Past
As an introduction, I think its really important to face the reality of being Muslims or European Muslims in our countries. And I heard of course that your situation in Austria may be better than others in other European societies. Still, if you look at what is going on now in the mainstream media around the world and especially in Europe, what we have to say is that the coverage of Islam and Muslims is mainly negative. So the perception the people around have about Islam and Muslims is negative, and we are facing this everyday. Just arriving here, reading in a UK newspaper, The Times, an article saying the problem is not with radical Muslims, the problem is with Islam itself because radical Muslims are in fact following the true message of Islam.
You know that we have far-right parties and something which has been normalizing the discourse in Europe about this. So the Muslims have two choices: the first one is to say OK, look, the people around us dont like Muslims and they dont like Islam and to nurture something which is the victim mentality: They dont like us, they dont like Islam, let us be among ourselves, to withdraw among ourselves and to be Muslims far from the society. This is the wrong answer. This is exactly what far-right parties want in our European societies.
What the Muslims should do is to refuse the victim mentality. Its not a question to be liked or not to be liked. Its a question of rights, its a question of understanding, its a question of self-respect. Its to stand up for our responsibilities as citizens and as Muslims and to say Look, we are not going to accept you to target us and promote racism. Its now time to live together, to respect each other and to know each other. So to stand up for our responsibilities is the only right Islamic and positive answer that Muslims should promote and not the victim mentality which is sometimes around in the Muslim communities in Europe.
The second point is that what we have now normalized in the discourse is people coming to you and saying you Muslims and us as Europeans. This us vs. them is not acceptable. Im part of this new us, Im not outside Europe. Its us as Europeans and us as Europeans, Muslims, atheists, Jews, Christians and whatever you want to be, you are European.
So the problem here is to say Look, its a question of common values and common citizenship, and be careful because till now even though you are less advanced as to the history of the Muslim presence in Austria as for example in France or in other countries in Europe with decades of Muslim presence, we still have people say You have to integrate.
I think we have to be cautious with the concept of integration, because people are nurturing this You have to integrate, you have to integrate and nurturing in their own minds and in our minds that to be integrated still means that you are not part of us, so we are waiting for you to be part of us. What we have to say is We are sorry. We are already integrated. Our main concern today is not to be integrated, its to contribute to the future of our society.
So its different now. Integration is a word of the past. The word of the future and the word of the present is contribution; what could we give as Austrian citizens, European citizens to our country. Stop talking about integration. Talk about living together, acting together, and contributing together for the sake of our common future.
So the last point is really something that we have to say. Maybe some people dont want to listen to this: Islam is a European religion. Islam is part of the European landscape. By the way, its not new. For all the people who are now building a new past to Europe and saying We want to talk to you as people coming from outside we have to tell them Look, you have to revisit your own past, because its not true that the European history is only based on Greek or Roman and Judeo-Christian legacy. Its wrong. The past of Europe is Judeo-Christian-Islamic, and we are part of Europe for a long time. So what we are trying to do by our presence is to reconcile yourself with your own past, because by having a selective approach of your past you are building a selective present.
So this is something which is really important and this is our business to come to something which should be important in our curriculum in the schools. We have to integrate this past as part of the European legacy. If you put us outside your past it means that you have difficulties to consider us as part of your present. So we have to take this as something which is a deep challenge.
What I want to say is now not only to speak about our fellow-citizens, but as we are here as a very impressive gathering of the Muslim community, the Austrian Muslim community, is to come to something which is from within. What do we have to say to ourselves to move from a victim mentality to our responsibilities as Austrian Muslims and European Muslims?
continued below...
