the theme of their book, it helped a 10 l that the main argumcnts and parts of the text ...... his momentous "death fatwa" against the novelist Salman Rushdie) in.
International Comparative
Social Studies
Transnationalism
Diasporas and the advent of a new (dis)order
III
Editor-in-Chief
Nlehdi P Amineh Amsterdam School for Social Sciences Research (ASSR) University of Amsterdam and In ternational Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS)- University of Leiden
Edited by
Eliezer Ben-Rafael and Yitzhak Sternberg With
Editorial Board
Sjoerd Beugelsdijk, Radboud University, Nijmegen,
T he Netherlands
Simon Bromley, Open University, UK
H arald Fuhr, University of Potsdam, Germany
Gerd Junne, University of Amsterdam, The N etherlands
Ngo T ak-Wing, University of Leiden, The Netherlands
M ario Rutten, University of Amsterdam, The N etherlands
Judit Bokser Liwerant and Yosef Gorny
Advisory Board
WA. Arts, University College Utrecht, The N ethe rl ands
Chan Kvvok-bun, H ong K ong Baptist University, H ong Kong
S.N. Eisenstadt, J erusalem, Israel
L. H antrais, Loughborough University, UK
G.C.M, Lieten, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
L. Visano, York University, Canada
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I
-
? ' IJJld Cili;cenship, Institute of Social Sciences, U niversity of Lisbon, funded by FCT See h llp:/ / lVww ics. ul.pt/institutol?ln=p&mm= 3&linha = 5&ctmid = I &mnid = I
" On shining constru cti o ns of the ca tegory Muslim and Mu slim id e ntiti es in Portuguese co ntex ts sec Vakil 2003 and 2003a. 18 Particip ating in this survey were 245 yo un g (transition to ad ulth oo d) Li sbon people (Muslims a nd non-Mu slim s) of middle cl ass background . Ir was unde rtaken between November 2005 and March 2006 in the context of a j oi nt project conduc ted by D avid Cairns (Institute of Social Sciences at th e Uni ve rsity of Lisbon) and the author of Auitudes Toward Mobility Amo ng You ng Lisbon People tCairns a nd Tiesler 2006, "Lillie Difference? Young Muslims in th e Contex t of Portuguese Youth" , /CS-UL, \Norking Paper No.8 (\'VP 8- 2006), @: http://www.ics.ul.pt/publi cacoes/ 1V0rkingpapers/index.htm . Th e quantitative data material contributed to th e broader proj eCt of the author on Young Mu slims in Portugal 'see footnote I G) which is mainl ), based on qualitative data material. On e of its results elicits that th cse young Muslims have broader international hori zons and a hi ghe r geographical m ob ili ty \\·;t h regard to short stays ab road (in terms of language skills, co ntacts, travel a nd temporary stays abroad for educa[ional purpos es) than you ng people without migrati on expe rience in their family biographies, while neither the Muslim, nOr the non-Muslim samp le showed future plans or a readi ness to leave Portugal for longer periods for professional purposes, despite the rather unJortunate situation at the Portuguese labor market.
or course we
happen to be somehow 'transnational', maybe a bit more than most other yo ung Portuguese people, but not necessarily more than those (non-Muslims, NeT) whose parents also came from the colonies or went to France or elsewh ere in Europe to work. \Ne are also not the only ones who are interested in international politics or hu manitarian aid and against th e Iraq \Nar. Somehow we became transnational, but it wasn't on purpose. . .. (Field Diary, 14 May 200 7)16
426
427
C HAPTER TWENTY-TWO
MUSLIM TRAI\lSNATIONALI SM AND DIASPORA IN EUROPE
generation" appeared hesitant to draw parallels betwee n the history of Judaism and that of globally dispersed Muslims, when deb ating it from a theological and/ or legal point of view. Mostly, the diaspora topic led the conversation to Islamic legal history, to the issue of the minor ity situation for whi ch Lhere exists no authoritative concept in Islamic theo ry or law, but has examples in history and respective diverse Islamic legal opinions (well documented is the early example of Al-Andalus after the reconquisla).I'i
by different Muslims in different countrie s: one only has to consider the French verdi ct on the veil, which in 2003 led to its ban in public schools. Conflicts like this, which in ignorance of the highly specific, current socio-historical context of their development are being shifted into simple explanation patterns of a renewed " Islam- vs.- the West" dichotomy, then lead partly to emancipati ve so lidarity and identity politics, at times also to isolationist poli cies. The isolationist positions are then in turn ideologically supported by the old bipartiti on of Lhe world, ~n d the entanglements of Islamic-legal desiderata and historical experience (from th e Crusades to more recent colonial history) extend into prese nt times. Such positions are marginal, yet capable of huge media impact. The fac t that Europe as a location of permanent residence so far could not be framed affir matively in Islamic catego ries, that established Isla mic concepts were unable to grasp the reali ty of twenty million immigran ts, postcolonial people, refugees and citizens who position themselves as Mu slims or are being classified as such by others du e to their ethnic origins, both opens up and demands room for new co n cepts. N ew co nditions and experiences of living require new answers to new questions. The respective discussions do not fo cus on ly on th e situation of international relations and migration , but in our case are based on experiences within the European context. Mandaville describes Europe as a " unique context for the reassessment of theories, beliefs and tradition , whil e increased transnati onalism en ables these new reformulations to travel the world" (Mand aville 2003: 140 - 141 ). Such discussions do not mark the beginning of the yo un g hi story of th e New Islami c Prese nce 20 in Europe, but have grown along with second
THE ABSENCE OF A DIASPO RIC SITUATION IN THEORY
Seemingly untouched by so cial reali ty, in whi ch nearly one-third of all Muslims nowad ays live in such a situation, outside the " House of Islam" in a strict sense, the minority situation far away from the Muslim core cou ntries (i.e. th e permanent residence of Muslims under non-Islamic legislation) is still be ing stigmatized fro m some normative-Sunni view points in conservative circles. A diasporic situation is seen as problematic a nd accepted only as tempo ra ry, vvith argu ments that result in part from problema tic entanglements of theology and historical experience (Duran 1990). It is not as though this stigmatization, this gap in legislation or ori entation wo uld have convinced a nyo ne who had immigrated to Europe in search of better living conditio ns to "return " to th eir country of origin (or tha t of their paren ts). The absence of a model within Islamic law for a "goo d Mu sli m life" in the midst of late-capitalist and (post-?) secularized dominant soci eties seems to play no essential role for the m ajority of th e Muslims co ncerned. The issue that lies at the root of the problem complex, the so-called "bipartition of the wo rld" into the antagonistic zon es of a "H ouse of Islam" and a "House of War/of U nbelief" (which is generally meant to in clude Europe) is being dis missed as medievally outdaLed-or else new pa rameters of allocation are being de termined, whereby Europe (or parts Lhere00 may be con sidered part of the "H ouse of Islam", for instan ce on the gro unds of the quality of co nstitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion (Shadid and van Koni ngsveld 1996). The quality of freedom of reli gio n-i. e. the prerequi site for a "good Mu slim life" in the minority situation- is bein g assessed differenLly iO On the i,sue of the min oriLY situation under non-Islamic law, on histori cal examples as we ll a.~ new perspectives see Duran 1984 and 1990; Fierro 2000 , Lewis 1993, Shadid a nd Va n Ko nin gweld 19% , T iesler 1999, M ille r 2000.
'" In o rder to c reate a co nceptual fram ework for th e effects o f a multi- face ted migration p henom eno n, i.e. the in creasing visibili ty of Islam in co nlc mporary Europe , Tom as Gerholm a nd Yngve Georg Lithma n in 1988 introduced the co ncept of a New Islamic Presence (NJP). Astonishingly, this co ncept- unlike the co ntributions in the book by the sam e na me, whi ch mea nwhile is being considered a classic in the field - has rarely been take n up. J use the term in orde r to su mm a rize the hi sto rically young and ex trem ely heterogenic phe nomenon of a co nstantl y growing num ber of M uslim citizens, relilgees a nd imm igrants and their ma nifold cultural, social a nd politi cal form s of exp ression in those coun tries which in the days of the East·\'Vest conflict of syste ms were perceived on the \
