Between openness and Islamophobia .. Salem Al Sheikhi explains the reality of Muslims in the West

Member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, Sheikh Salem Al-Sheikhi, said that the reality of Muslims in the West has changed in recent decades after Muslim scholars alerted their fluctuating reality, stressing the need for stability in the new homeland.

He added – in an interview to the episode (3/3/2021) of the “Sharia and Life in Ramadan” program – that thinking after this change embodied in the transition from the concept of the immigrant to the citizen and the positive integration in these societies while preserving the religious identity, and today Muslims in Europe are a minority Religious and political opinion leaders contribute to changing the reality in their countries because they have become citizens.

He added that the development that took place in the lives of Muslims did not appeal to some parties and parties in many countries, which produced what is known today as the phenomenon of “Islamophobia” or Islamophobia, for their fear that Islam as a religion will expose these countries to a religious change on the level of the continent of Europe, and the ability of Muslims. On political change, so they declared their fear for secular Europe.

He pointed out that France, Germany and Britain are 3 countries that have the ability to manage trends in all of the European continent, but what distinguishes Britain is that it is a country based on ethnic and intellectual pluralism, which is also found in America and Scandinavia, in contrast, France is based on a certain philosophy of the concept of citizenship. It is a limitation in understanding the secular thought that governs society, and the same theory is shared by the Netherlands and Belgium.

He added that Germany represents a mediating situation between Britain and France in terms of intellectual and political history, and the concept of citizenship in the three countries is what is reflected in the lives of Muslims there, as France rejects the Islamic presence, while there is a case of defending this issue in Germany, in exchange for openness to Muslims. In Britain.

On the acceptance of Muslims by the peoples of these countries, a member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research emphasized that the problem of European peoples ‘dealings with Muslims differs from one country to another, and depends mainly on the state and its institutions’ dealings with them, revealing that there is real confusion in France due to restrictions on freedom of religion, and this contradicts that with Freedom of expression that they see as sacred.

He pointed out that religiosity is divided into two matters, a matter related to the individual space of a person and the way he practices his religious rituals in his home, and this matter is legally guaranteed, and the other part is religiosity in the public space, and here the state has the right to intervene to control places of worship and the right to freedom in practicing it, but it is an area for tampering with the provisions of the law. And circumvent it, such as the issue of the veil that France removed from the private right to the public right and began to prevent it.

He added that the systematic hate campaigns against Islam and Muslims have caused Muslims to a state of distress in some countries where the state adopts these campaigns.