Report on a Symposium ‘Islam and the Changing Identity of Europe’

Abstract

In October 1998, The Middle East and West Europe Centers of the University of California at Berkeley jointly sponsored a two-day symposium, ‘Islam and the Changing Identity of Europe: Culture, Politics and Citizenship in an Era of Globalization’. The programme focused on the deep ideational changes which have been taking place in Europe due to the Muslim populations which have sprung up in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and elsewhere. The symposium explored political and cultural aspects of the emerging identities of these relatively new citizens Ð how they view themselves and how they are viewed by non-Muslim Europeans, as well as how the relatively indigenous populations of Europe are being forced to rethink their own collective identities, both as Europeans and as citizens of specific countries. In their symposium prospectus and introductory remarks the organizers argued that these are no longer migration issues in the traditional sense, because most Muslims in Europe are no longer migrants. Muslim populations have been present in Europe for several generations, although many Europeans have been slow to recognize that Islam is now a European religion.