moghrabi said:
Rick van Opbergen said:
I think one of the reasons Islamophobia is (still) on the rise in Europe is that a lot of Europeans do not identify themselves with Muslims, many of whom come from countries who do not have the same points of view. This "non-identification" is fueled by the fact that the majority of Muslims in Europe belong to the lower class, and by that cluster together in the "bad" neighborhoods. The far majority of "white" Europeans have absolutely no contact with them whatsoever, which enlarges the risk of prejudices about Muslims gaining ground - there is no one to tell differently.
Rick, Do muslims in Europe have any other chance of living in places other than the slums of Europe where the rich don't have any contact with them?
Tough question. There is a growing Muslim middle class surfacing in Europe who settle in the better neighborhoods. In the Netherlands, for what I know, people are free to buy a house where ever they want. So in theory, Muslims can escape the slums where they live. But of course, that does not match reality, and I think the answer to your question is very difficult.
For one, and research in the Netherlands has proved that, it is harder for foreigners - not only for Muslims - to get a job than "white" Europeans (I put "white" between brackets, because it can also include Europeans who are not by definition "white", but who act "white" ... Maybe I can better replace that with "autochtonous European" instead of "white", for example, Indonesians in the Netherlands, who are not by definition white by the color of their skin but are accepted as "one of us" by the far majority of the Dutch ... Sounds confusing eh?). People with a Turkish or Moroccan sounding name have less chance of being invited to a job interview than people with a Dutch name like "Jansen" or "de Vries". Their chance of being hired is even smaller. This makes it harder for Muslims to get a good job.
Many Muslims lack good education. The number of Muslim youth who finish their A-levels is much smaller than the number of Dutch who finish their A-levels. For some part, the environment in which many Muslim youth are grown up is to blame (according to some); they do not recieve the same stimulans as Dutch youth get from their parents, is the complaint; there is the claim that many parents do not care about the education of their childen. In a survey conducted under parents in a slum in Amsterdam, more than halve of the mothers could not name the school their child or children were visiting.
However, certain researchers have said that the education given at so-called "black schools", schools where a majority of the students are (children of) immigrants and which are mainly situated in the "bad" neigborhoods, is below the level of "white schools". Many immigrant children need more attention than other children, for example to learn the language, and this special attention is not given, according to the critics.
Then there is the complaint - in general - by prominent Muslims as well as reseachers that the current society is not willing to absorb the new immigrants and their childen (as I said before). Muslims are not seen as, and not treated as, the same as "white Europeans". This makes a lot of Muslims to turn into their own group, isolate themselves from the rest of society. So even Muslims who have the opportunity to escape the slums will be reluctant to do so. Not so long ago I saw a French documentary on Belgian television about Muslims in France, and a Turkish teacher - who had the opportunity to live outside the slums where he grew up - decided to stay in this ghetto with his family - to be with his own group. He did feel French, but he knew he wasn't viewed at as being French by "the" French.
The complaint that a lot of European societies are not willing to absorb the Muslim immigrants among their midst is also said to be an explanation for the rising fundamentalism among Muslim youth in Europe.
