Are Muslim and Western European values generally incompatible? Discuss with reference to the Turkish accession to the European Union

Résumé du document

Since the middle of the 20th century and the beginning of globalization, a phenomenon of mass migration has appeared. It thus led to an unprecedented cultural mix. Therefore, the Western states had to find a way to cope with this new challenge. Each country developed its own model: the French assimilation, the British multiculturalism, or the Dutch and German cultural pluralism. However, if this models were efficient in some cases such as the integration of the Hindu minority (Koopmans et al, 2005), one culture is still a problem for the Western policy-makers. The Muslim community and the question of its integration are unchaining passions in the European media. Moreover, this social unrest is traduced in the recent rise of the political extreme-right, such as the French Front National.

Furthermore, the question of the compatibility between Islam and the West has been aroused by the possible integration of the Turkey in the European Union. Turkey can be considered as different of the current members of the EU: according to Bolkestein (2006), the history of Europe was shaped by Judeo-Christian values, which differ from the Islamic ones that have shaped the Turkish history. It is important to define the Western and the Muslim values in a first place. One would say that the key Western value is definitely the liberalism.

Extraits

[...] Such statement is strengthened by Koopmans's (2005) data which shows that the huge majority of group demands in Western liberal countries (France, Netherlands and Britain) are made by Muslims. Muslim values are such that they would need a transformation of the institutionalized public domain to be fully respected. This can be explained by the absence of distinction between the religious and civic spheres in the Islam. Another issue is the reciprocal feelings between the Westerners and the Muslims. There is a deeply rooted fear and a strong reject of the Muslim values in the West. [...]

[...] Once again, the key issue is the difference of value given to freedom in the two sets of values. This explains the main points of tension between Islam and the West, as the Muslim values seem to be much more illiberal than what the West could tolerate. Reciprocally, the extent of the individual liberty in the West would be seen as decadent in the Islam. * However, at both levels, thing can be done to conciliate these two sets of values which have been proved to be incompatible. [...]

[...] It seems to be the price to pay for a cultural pluralism policy. On a short run, this sure looks efficient, as the tolerance issue should be settled. However, even this last point can be contested in the Muslim case. The Muslim theology is not unique but multiple; the tolerance of some group demands would thus lead to a scission of the Muslim community in different groups and thus to new group demands (Koopmans et al, 2005). Only the scale of the problem may be changed. [...]

[...] This generalized idea actually leads to an incompatibility between the Western and Muslim values but rather between their respective idealized views than their very essence. The issue of the compatibility between the Muslim and Western values is also to be discussed at the governance level. A statistic seems relevant to grasp the reality of such issue: in 2002, the 47 countries with Islamic majorities, only 11 had democratically elected government while 110 of the 145 non-Islamic states are electoral democracies” (Karatnycky, 2002). [...]

[...] On the other hand, the Muslim values are rather illiberal (Sniderman and Hagendoorn, 2007) with a strong tradition of authority that starts in the familial sphere (women are not men's equals, strong power of the father which is close of the Roman pater familias) and is reflected in the Islamic way of ruling. One example would be the current Iranian regime, which was created after an Islamic revolution and is now ruled by the Ayatollahs. Therefore, it is legitimate to wonder: is the cohabitation of the Western and Muslim values (illustrated by the possible or not integration of the Turkey in the E.U.) possible? This essay will first demonstrate that there actually are some points of conflict between the Western and Muslim set of values both societal and at the governance level. [...]