The disconnect of religion, culture, and politics in Europe in the context of Muslim identities

within the West lies with xenophobic, Islamophobic, and orientalist beliefs and attitudes held by white
Europeans and legislature in the same vein which exists to keep Muslim Europeans perpetually
otherized and excluded from and within European society. It is true that with bodies that are products of
a diaspora there will be an inevitable dilution of the mother-culture, as Tariq Ramadan explained, this
first generation came from simple backgrounds heavily marked by their culture of origin*they+ at first
tried to protect themselves rather than integratetheir children were born in Europe, became fluent
in their national language, and became better educated than their elders(Ramadan 253); however,
these explorations of Muslim identity in the West are centered around the idea that standard normal
European culture is unchangeably and archaically white.
While exploring why multiculturalism has failed in Europe, Olivier Roy writes: Second and third
generations tend to prefer the language of the guest country over that of their parents home
country.Youth tend to adopt Western urban sub-culturefast foodthan traditional cuisine (Roy
245). Roy manages to recognize second and third generation Muslims as European by birth while
simultaneously establishing them as Other. The implication is made that there is some allegiance to a
collective Muslim Motherland that they should be adopting the customs of, rather than the place they
are born and raised in, participate in, interact within, etc. The implication is that Muslims in the West are
inherently other by virtue of their religion and ethnic background. This does not set the stage for a
real dialogue of Muslim identity in Europe.
The claim Roy makes, that multiculturalism has failed in Europe because the belief is that
religion and culture are inextricable is a reductive analysis. To ignore the political aspects that play a role
in the rejection and marginalization of Muslim identity is reckless. In order to have a true discourse
surrounding the challenges facing Muslims in Europe, one must realize how the political context of

Europe is setting the limits around that very discourse. As noted by Lorenzo Vidino, most of the
debate related to political Islam in Europe has focused on the threat of terrorism and the issue of
radicalization among segments of the European Muslim population (41). The debate,, which is
centered almost solely around national security sets the stage for xenophobic, Islamophobic fear
mongering which further alienates Muslim Europeans.
The current reductive analyses branded as dialogues and debates of Muslim identity in
Europe do more damage than exploration. The orientalist lens trained on Muslims who have emigrated
to or are born in Europe is unrelenting. The challenges Muslims in the West face are rooted in these
practices. It is as if the official position of the West is: Muslims from many different countries and ethnic
backgrounds need to establish a uniform version of Islam which acts independently from the various
cultures of their parents homelands so Europeans can tolerate you in European land, which Muslims
may have happened to be born in. Until there is a reform in the academic approach to how Muslim
identity is dissected there cannot be any real dialogue of Western Muslim identity, only partial
analyses. Rather than redefining, or even defining the meaning of European culture, there is a dark
shroud of an assumed definition- that European culture is the antithesis of Islam and Muslim identity.