A fit of racism in Europe

The Western world, which tries to put anti-racism and multiculturalism forward as a norm and value, has lately been going through the heaviest bout of racism and cultural hatred. The bout has a cyclical resonance. It is a disease that never fully goes away, and even when it recedes at times, relapses when it finds its opportunity. Yet the idea of the contemporary West or contemporary Europe, even the idea of the EU, constantly feeds an optimism that this disease has been cured for good.

In reality, with the events of recent times the Western world is going through its heaviest tests on this matter. The Ferguson events in the US showed, in a very cautionary way, that the racism problem, believed to have been solved, had only been suppressed, that it can relapse at every opportunity, and that when it relapses it still has a very significant echo in society.

In Europe the situation looks even graver. It is said that after the Nazi experience, the pressures placed especially on Germany created a very strong sensitivity against racism among the German people. But this sensitivity, which "for now" continues to operate when it is a matter of Jewishness, appears to provide no guarantee against other races. Moreover, beyond the Jews, a ground is developing that makes discriminatory policies against, for example, Turks or Muslims seem excusable, even reasonable.

This is the really dangerous part. The violence and wars taking place in many parts of the Islamic world have almost normalized thinking that the problem stems from Muslims. Islamophobia, that is, hatred of Islam and Muslims, is on the verge of being embraced as an "understandable reaction" whose party responsible is, again, Muslims themselves.

If you look at it, the legitimization of anti-Semitism followed no different a path. "In the end the Jews were doing things that deserved being hated. There was nothing else left for the anti-Semites to do." The culprits of hatred of Muslims likewise turn out to be not those who hold the hatred but the Muslims who do things deserving of this hatred. They can never keep step with European values, they cannot fulfill the requirements of integrating with Europe.

If you look at it, Islam is the first subject on which a Europe that claims multiculturalism is tested against a truly different culture. All the different cultures that, in its current state, it speaks proudly of including and keeping together successfully have emerged from within the European cultural basin and are nothing but different shades of that culture. There is not much that should make Europe boast as a union that brings the diversity of these cultures together in peace. The policies it has developed regarding these differences of shade do not show that it has overcome the problem of racism. What matters is how it reacts when it encounters a relatively more different culture such as Islam.

In fact, Turkey's EU membership provides Europe a real opportunity to broaden its horizon on this matter. Besides, Islam is, after all, not a culture far from or outside Europe, both because of its historical contribution to the formation of today's Europe and because of its not inconsiderable population within today's European borders.

Even so, the cultural climate dominating Europe, and the Islamophobic discourses and movements that have lately been on the rise everywhere in Europe, show that Europe is in serious weakness in the face of this test.

The popularity that the "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West" (PEGIDA) movement, which has recently developed especially in Germany, is on the verge of seeing gives dangerous signals. In a city like Dresden, where very few Muslims already live, the movement, which began with demonstrations in which slogans such as "we do not want to see Muslims in our country" were openly chanted, was at first only a group of 300 members. But in a short time it reached 20,000 members, and began holding demonstrations in different cities every week across the country openly shouting hatred of Islam. Both at these demonstrations and in other settings, attacks on mosques, which are singled out as targets while they say they do not want to see more mosques in Europe, are becoming increasingly widespread.

While these developments are taking place at the level of civil society, the truly worrying situation is that politicians are entering a race to appeal to these racist developments. The CSU can bring onto the agenda an issue such as introducing into its party program an "obligation to speak German at home."

That such a subject should even occur to anyone with regard to Turks in Germany, which has never dropped the concept of mother-tongue education from the agenda as an important heading in Turkey's democratization and human rights report card, is very telling. Indeed, it shows how far they themselves are from what they recommend to us, and it falls to us to reflect on the reason for this distance.

This bout of racism, which the West believed it had buried in history and cured, is not a problem to be taken lightly. If effective measures are not taken, it will certainly carry away all the acquis that has been put forward in Europe's name.

INNA LILLAH VE INNA ILEHYI RACIUN

With our mortal reason we make plans we think are great, and how important we consider ourselves within these plans. We say it cannot be without us, but the Owner of this firmament makes His warning each time, as the absolute Owner of the plan and of all plans... From Chicago, where I had come for the annual regular conference of the Muslim American Society (MAS) and ICNA, umbrella organizations of American Muslims, I am returning on the same plane because my late uncle's son Mehmet Ali Aktay and his wife Muazzez lost their lives in a traffic accident they had in Şanlıurfa. They had set out to visit their dear son, who is performing his military service, and to be reunited with him.

I pray for God's mercy. In the meantime I thank all the friends who called or left messages for condolences and whom I could not answer because I was on the plane for a long time.