Download Radical Islam in Europe: Challenges to

Islamisation of Europe and its
challenges for the
international security
Elena Pereluigina, Ural State
University
Main Questions:
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Does Islamisation really
threatens to Europe?
Why are the Europeans
so afraid of it and can
we speak about
Islamophobia?
Where are the sources
of such a situation?
Contents
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Islam as a religion,
is it dangerous
Islamophobia
Islamic terrorism
Europe and Islam
Mediterranean
region
Turkey and the EU
Russia and Islam
Islam as a religion

The religion of
Islam is the
acceptance of and
obedience to the
teachings of God
which He revealed
to His last prophet,
Muhammad
Islam as a religion
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The notions of justice, solidarity and tolerance
are central to the Koran and to Muslim ethics.
The very name Islam - the Arabic root word
'salama' - peace. Islam is based upon achieving
peace through the submission to the will of Allah
Islam is a religion of peaceable and orderly
people
Islam as a religion
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The West was presented with a hostile,
suspicion-oriented vision of Islam
The deep-rooted image on the West fundamentalist Muslim world pursuing an
international plot to destroy the Western identity
S. Huntington1 wrote : "Islam has not been
hospitable to democracy “
Islamophobia
 Islam condemned as an obscurantist religion,
closed to any form of progressive thought.
 The idea of an Arab Muslim world which is
violent, fanatical and amoral.
 The fear of seeing populations of Magreb and
Turkey, immigrating to Europe
 The propaganda chain : Arabs- the terrorist
acts of 11.09.- economical slump
Reasons to keep Islam in the distance
(according to Mass-Media)
 Islam and democracy seem to be contradictory
 Every Islamic pressure from Nigeria to Afghanistan, means an
extension of the Shari’ a, i.e. less rights for the women, for the
Non-Moslems and even for the Moslems.
 Today, in Islam, the non-Moslem minorities are reduced as
shagreen leather… Moslem colonies multiply in Europe.
 From Cyprus to Indonesia the frontiers of Islam are blood-stained.
 Islamism, the only modern ideology, openly opposed to the Human
rights, fast established in some states and desiring to impose itself
in the world , even by the force.
Islamic terrorism
The term “Muslim terrorist” is used to label
Islam as a terrorist religion
 Jihad – striving, an inner thing, within self, to
rid it from debased actions or inclinations, &
exercise constancy & perseverance in achieving
a higher moral standard
 Islam does not fight other religions.
 Islam opposes any form of indiscriminate
violence. The Koran states: “Anyone who has

killed another except in retaliation, it is as if he
has killed the whole of humankind.” (32:5).
Europe and Islam
► The
Historic conflict between the Christian West
& Islam : the crusades, colonization,
decolonization , the Arab-Israeli conflict,
problems relating to oil & immigration
► The
social image of Arab and Turkish immigrants
in Europe: from that of a foreign temporary
worker to that of a devout Muslim transplanted
into Europe
Islam - Europe's second religion
Nearly 20 million inhabitants of the EU –
Moslems:
Europe's aging population - labor-thirsty for
the next two decades
+
the population of the Arab Middle East exploding & looking to move
=
by 2020 Moslems - 10% of the overall
population of Europe
► In
30 years, the Moslem population of GB rose
from 82,000 to 2 million.
► In
Germany - 4 million Moslems, mostly Turks.
► Over
5 million across the Rhine in France, mostly
North Africans.
►A
million Moslems each in Italy & the
Netherlands, & half-a-million in Spain.
► Almost
a tenth of all babies born in EU countries
- Moslem.
► the
often-difficult process of mutual
adaptation & accommodation between
European societies & burgeoning Muslim
populations
► Moslem
migrants -increasingly the targets
of the "war against terror" in Europe.
Afghani & Iraqi terrorists are claimed to
have infiltrated refugees & asylum seekers
Mediterranean region
Historical background
 1. In 711, the Arabs and Berbers in the Iberian
Peninsula ( for 8 centuries, Al-Andalus,
Cordoba) ;
 2. In the 11th century, the Christian
“reconquest”
 3. From the 16th century onwards, European
countries settled in the South Mediterranean
(until the second half of the 20th century).
 4. Today, public opinion in Europe and the
South Mediterranean lags far behind the views
of intellectuals and politicians. .

the North-South divide at the Mediterranean:
confrontation between two worlds which differ in
culture, religion, politics, development levels,
demography, emigration, and economic flows.

the European media - a decisive role in
spreading the fear of a perceived Islamic threat

Modernisation is not synonymous with
Westernisation

there is migratory pressure from south & east
towards the north, there is a demographic
imbalance .
Turkey & the EU
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The Turkish campaign for accession – 4
main arguments:
a long-standing contractual relationship with the
EU
( Association Agreement)
Turkey - economically on a par with or more
advanced than many of the applicants, it’s a
parliamentary democracy.
Turkey offers the EU strategic and economic
advantages in terms of stability on its south
eastern flank, & influence in the emerging
countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia.
The application is crucial to Europe’s future
relations with the Islamic south of the
Mediterranean.
In the EU, attention tends to focus
on several points:
Turkey is still a poor country in terms of
per capita income.
 Much of the economy is still agricultural.
 There are very severe regional
imbalances.
 A successful Islamic revival in Turkey

Good reasons to say :” No for
Turkey in Europe” (public opinion).
The birth of a
Europe without any
geographic limits.
 The aggravation of
the immigration.
 Islamisation of
Europe
 The increase of
unemployment

The re-Islamisation of Turkey
Islamists in Turkey say : “The reIslamisation of Turkey - the first step
towards the Islamisation of Europe”.
 The Party of Prosperity (Refah), “Grey
Wolves”, organization “Islamic Jihad”
propagandize the following ideas:
•
Hatred to Europe
•
Islamisation of Europe
•
Panturkism
•
Xenophobie

The 14 months of Refah rule left
some clear indications:
Foreign Policy: The friends were in
Islamic states
 The legal system: it promised to start
the Islamisation of the legal system.
 Education: its long-term aim was to
phase out the ‘secular’ educational system
in Turkey, and replace it at all levels by a
religiously-oriented one.
 Finance: Left to itself Welfare would have
tried to ‘Islamise’ the economy

Russia and Islam
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the Moslem population of the RF vary from 15 to 21
million.
Russia - an Euroasian country, the country of ChristianIslamic dualism.
For the West Islam & Islamic
institutions - the moment of
their foreign policy or the
problem of the elaboration
of the attitude to immigrants
from Moslem countries.
For Russia it is a part of the
way of life of many millions
of Russian Moslems that
have been living in Russia for
centuries, for whom Russia
isn’t a temporary refuge but
the native home.
Arange of measures for the limitation of
the Islamic danger:
1. the depoliticisation of Islam, the deIslamisation of politics;
2. the exclusion of interference in the sociopolitical
sphere of Islamic organistions;
3. the limitation or full ban on the the activities of
foreign Islamic organizations;
4. the reconsidering of foreign policy priorities
towards cooperation with states which either do
not use Islamism in foreign policy, or at a
minimum do not use it against Russia.

the Moslem faith isn’t identified as such
with the threat it sees as emanating from
the extremist forces
According to V. Putin and I.Ivanov:
 A threat of Islamic extremism has
emerged in Central Asia and the Islamic
regions of the RF.
 By militarily confronting this threat, Russia
is protecting the entire international
community (particularly the West), and
deserves its support.