A young Norwegian has killed dozens of innocent people. Many thought at first—quite naturally these days—that we had witnessed a new Muslim terrorist attack. We had not. Muslims everywhere breathed a sigh of relief. But in Norway, the massacre came as both a shock and a wake-up call. A fundamentalist Christian had murdered his fellow citizens because he believed Norway’s political parties (as well as its self-styled centrist politicians) were betraying the country’s values and culture. By accepting new immigrants and allowing Muslims to settle in Norway, he claimed, they were—as in so many European countries—destroying Europe’s Christian roots. So he acted to raise awareness, to try to halt the silent “colonization” of the West. One day before the attack, he had posted on the Internet a Manifesto filled with Canadian, American, British and French references to the new threats called “immigration,” “Islam,” “the other,” and non-Westerners in general.
Some Western Muslims, in Europe or America, were simply relieved that Islam was not involved. Some were even happy to point out that Christians can be terrorists as well, as if we were competing to see who is worst: a bizarre attitude. Instead, we should be sending our sincere condolences to the bereaved families and to the Norwegian population as a whole. What happened is unacceptable; it is our duty to side with the victims of any terrorist attack. Killing civilians and innocent people can never be justified. Whether the perpetrators are Jews, Christians, Muslims, or anyone else, such acts must be condemned in the strongest words.
These are sad days indeed. Norway is a peaceful country, unaccustomed to such violence. I want here to pay tribute to all those who died and to condemn these barbaric acts.
What happened? Who is to blame? The populist and extreme right-wing parties in Norway, as well as in Europe and America, were quick to condemn the killer’s horrible act and to dissociate themselves from it. Timely words, but are they enough? If a young fundamentalist Christian was ready to kill to save his religion and his culture, as he sees it, it is because—for the last ten to fifteen years—he heard, day in day out, that both were in danger. Populist parties are propagating the idea that immigration is destroying the West and that Muslims are not truly Western citizens, even after three or four generations. Equally worrisome has been the attitude and the rhetoric of the traditional parties, from the right as well as from the left, as they very repeat, and thus confirm, the substance of the populist line. In fact they implicitly, and even very explicitly, especially at election time, agree that immigration, Islam and security are the three main problems facing the West. Even though they distance themselves from specific extremist views, they clearly view Islam as a “problem” and not yet a European or American religion. By repeating that integration has failed, that Muslims are retreating into ghettos, that multiculturalism is the wrong choice or by associating the presence of Muslims with the immigration threat they create a toxic climate, which is conducive to the growth of racism and extremist views.
The great majority of politicians from the traditional parties, the populists as well as numerous “progressive” intellectuals, can no longer speak and behave today as if they have no connection with the extremist actions of some fundamentalist or extreme right-wing groups. Western intellectuals must also assume their responsibilities: they have been active agents in creating the sickening atmosphere that is sweeping over the West. But it would be too easy to blame the Tea Party and the Neo-conservatives in the United States, the Conservative Party in Canada, or the populists of Europe if we did not scrutinize the rhetoric of politicians and intellectuals eager to spread biased and simplistic views on Islam, racist statements, hatred of Muslims, or xenophobia as if it was normal to do so, all because Islam and Muslims are such an easy target nowadays. It is normal, and even healthy to criticize Muslims, but it is quite disturbing to see intellectuals, politicians and journalists focusing on the “Islamic factor” as if it explained all our problems.
Instead, they overlook real socioeconomic and political issues such as unemployment, social injustice, discrimination and skewed urban and social policies. They support policies based on fear and then expect their hands to remain clean after an extremist kills innocent people because he has absorbed this very fear. If they are not responsible for the killings, they are surely responsible for fostering both the climate and the ideology that are two of the causes. A self-critical position would be more than welcome. Imperative, in fact.
The killings in Norway are indeed a wake-up call. It is time for Western Muslims to stand up, to be vocal and to refuse to be treated as second-class citizens. Instead of seeing themselves as the victims, instead of marginalizing themselves, they should be an integral part of mainstream social, political and economic debates. Islam is a Western religion, that’s a fact. The issue of immigration is another discussion, one that requires a vision for the future. No Western country can survive and prosper without the support of new and young immigrants in the work force. It is clearly not by pandering to fears that the problem is going to be solved. A climate of fear would only leads to isolation and /or fragmentation within the society, and eventually to violent and extremist behavior.
The choice is ours: we can use wisdom, or become (explicitly or implicitly) populists. Some intellectuals can make a name for themselves; politicians can win the next election by surfing on people’s fears and sense of loss. But they will surely be forgotten by History. Others are prepared to face prejudices, racism and xenophobia with courage and commitment. They are the visionaries our contemporary times need even though a majority of people is still not aware of it. Sometimes History unfolds in ways that work against people’s short-term impulses—and their collective blindness.
When I read your previous article, Whither Europe?, I couldn’t really imagined how serious the multiculturalism issue in Europe. The similar issue was put forward by critical opinion scholar from US.
It didn’t take much time for me to get a clear answer, on how serious it really is, when the blast happened.
I think because Muslims in Muslim countries, such as mine, barely fully understand deeply of this issue, the underlying root of the problems. Thus, the discussion is quite surface here. It only revolved around media transparency, which it’s obviously biased comparing if the doer is a muslim.
Or perhaps I read less sources from my country regarding this particular issue.
Based on my limited & immature knowledge and thought, to me, the lesson is not only directed to the European countries, but also to Muslim countries that live together with multiple races, religions and immigrants. The similar issue presents, the difference is the opposite role played by Muslims.
This is just how most countries turned or will turn into, slowly. How to dealt with it, it’s a lesson to be studied for most countries, and most people.
Thank you for this article , it is very thought provoking , but we muslims cant just blame the right wing groups and neo nazis and fundamentalists around the word for this horrific act in Norway , we muslims are partly to blame ! We have give fuel to this type of racisms , we dont properly expalain the ideas of our religion , or explain the riutals involved in our religion , or why our women cover up. We dont bother to extend hands of friendship to our neighbours and invite non muslims into our homes to show them that we live “so called civilised lives”, and lead normal lives , we are luve everyone else , normal human beings; who only just happen not to eat pork or drink alcohol , or go clubbing and our wo men folk cover up. We are a people who work hard, who have the share the daily problems of others; maritial problems , raising children problems, and worry about paying the bills and are eager to watch the football game or the soap opera on Tv like everyone else. We need to explain our religion well to others in our neighbour- hoods , in our schools and universities , in our work places. People fear what they dont know and dont understand , so lets us just spread awareness of of our faith , to reassure non muslims that we are decent , moral people , who are friendly, who keep good friendly relations with their neighbours who are involved in all community services and who are not isolated from non muslims and do keep the company of non muslims and respect other people’s beliefs even if they are the anti-thesis of our own , everyone is free to follow their own convictions !Before trying to judge others , let us just finish judging our selves and examine our own failings as Muslims who by our laxness , and passivness , have let fundamentalists hijack our religion which has given fuel to neo nazis and right wing groups to portray us as barbarians , blood thirsty , reactionary people who live in the dark ages, whilst everyone else is in the 21st century. Let us portray Islam in a positve light first , by our actions , scrutinise our own behaviour because we are ambassadors of our faith and smile to non muslims and befriend them and invite them into our homes and mosques and properly learn the language of the countries where we live and enjoy freedoms which we didn’t enjoy in our original homeland or the homeland of our fore-fathers. Once we have finished doing that , we can then stand up to the neo-nazis by using the media and press to spread our tolerant beliefs and counter all the false information circulating about Muslims in the media, parliaments, government offices, places of worship , communtiy centres, schools and universities etc. around the world. God protect all the peace loving people around the world, and my deep condolences to the great people of Norway for this terrible tragedy.
Before giving any explanation on Islam ; Do muslims
have a coherent and exemplativ behaviour in Europe
Or are they always only complaining on their own ” chimeric
discrimination ”
Before explaining Islam ,others see your conduct first
as a transparency of your identification to Islam.
Your message is in YOUR CONDUCT first before anything else
Voilà une bonne leçon, qui pointe d’emblée le mauvais rôle de la droite Française, de l’extrême droite et des autres courants nationalistes racistes français en premier chef, puis européens, américains etc. Mais bien que ces courants plitiques sont responsables en partie de l’attentat, ils ignorent, passent sous silence. Ils font comme si ils étaient pas concernés, ils condamnent et déclarent des condoléances! C’est un peu le jeu de la fin de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, lorsque tout le monde à voulu se faire résistant, même les traîtres. Eh bien là aussi, tous les partis nationalistes veulent passer leur sympathie alors qu’ils ont passé des années, des mois à parler de l’Islam, parfois que de L’Islam, oubliant même de passage les grandes questions du pays à l’exemple du chômage, de l’économie etc. Et ce qui est saugrenu est que même Marine le Pen octroi ses condoléances! Ils jouent à l’Hypocrésie et leur soif du pouvoir les amènent à pousser certains à faire n’importe quoi. Quelle honte. Et du fond du coeur, mes condoléances à ce pays, que j’ai visité et qui fait preuve d’une ouverture assez bien, et amalgame les musulmans sans problème à la nation.
nice article, but just a simple point.
We the Berber, don’t like the word Barbaric, as it refers to the primitive and uncivilized.
If you have another explanation please share why you used that word, or other wise please remove it.
thank you kindly
its so we both understand.
tariq didn’t change the word and I think he is right. barbaric means primitive and uncivilized and has nothing to do with the amazigh or berber people. history sometimes does strange things like connecting this word with a people with a rich history and civilization. people who still knowingly link that word and its meaning with the amazigh people as we know some do, are morally wrong and ignorant. people who use the word for its one meaning like tariq are not, though as an amazigh I understand the emotional resistance to the mere word itself. I guess it’s complex but that’s just my take.
Why do arabs still call berbers like that?
Soon arabs have to except, as others do, not only the existence but also the right to exist of these people. There is no escaping from this fact, as we are facing not only an arab be also a berberrevolution:
http://www.economist.com/node/21525925
Salaam and peace to all
Today i came across this article and i regained some faith on our arab brothers, so i wanted to share:
http://www.mondeberbere.com/presse/200107_arabnews_en.htm
These words sound pretty right…media looking so fast for the link with the implication of Norway in Libya and Afghanistan, then this sigh of relief knowing that we won’t be pointed by the finger again. We are still, too much driven by our emotions.
Would it be too naïve to think that this unfortunate event is the isolated work of a maniac? I hope that the populists and the extreme right parties haven’t succeed yet to implant their ideology in our societies, and that it’s still time to stop them.
Ces mots sonnent tellement vrai…les médias qui s’emballent si vite en cherchant déjà les relations avec l’implication de la Norvège en Libye, en Afghanistan, et puis ce soupir de soulagement de savoir que nous ne seront pas une nième fois pointés du doigt. Nous sommes encore, trop conduits par nos émotions.
Serait-ce trop naïf de penser que ce malheureux évènement est l’œuvre isolée d’un forcené ? J’espère de tout cœur que les populistes et les partis d’extrême droite n’ont pas encore réussi à implanter leur idéologie dans nos sociétés, et qu’il est encore temps de les arrêter.
the text was too good for me alone thus making me share it…
THE PRIMEMINISTER JENS STOLTENBERG ACTED LIKE A SAINT….WHAT HAPPEND I NORWAY HAPPENS EVERY WEEK IN GAZA…AND THE WORLD IS SAYING NOTHING !!??
subhannallah, in canada we face little form s of rasicm but not allot becuse we are alot of muslim
us muslims need to learn to speak up before it gets worst we werenty taught to speak up we were just taught respect and this can be a problem but always remeber allawh and ask yourself what would the prophet muhammad saw do? alwaqys ask allah fro help in litte and big situation because only allah can help you.
allah likes it fro a believer to ask and dont lose your heart if what u askked for didnt happen because it a test. to how much self control and where your love for allah can reach. and the world is okay but the next is even better so keep your heart with allah and make dikir and dua
Please don’t mix events we are in a european problem
and don’t bring again Gaza drama in the front of a problem wich have to deal with other sources and other elements .Confusion is not permitted.
I do not think that it was helpful that you continually describe Breivik as a fundamental Christian . He is just simple a dundamental psychopath. I have some fundamental Christian beliefs such as the virgin birth etc and so I do find your comment at best ridiculous and at worst offensive
I am well aware that Breivik is not connected to any known Norwegian Nazi group and when you read his 1,500-page manifesto he posted online prior to the attacks, Breivik seems to have drawn inspiration from so-called “counter-jihadist” thinkers such as Pamela Geller and her close ally Robert Spencer. However quoting from other Christian literature doesn’t make Breivik a fundamental Christian. During the second world war Hitler quotes Luther to justify his genocide of the Jews.
Does that make Hitler a Lutheran Christian ? In fact he was a Catholic and should have been excommunicated by the Pope but he wasn’t and is consider to this day to be a Catholic !
Surtout ne pas faire de Breivik un “psychopath” ! ça déresonsabiliserait et dépolitiserait son acte au profit d’une psychologisation et d’une individualisation. Breivik n’est pas fou , il a tué méthodiquement ces compatriotes comme le ferait un soldat , il est la conséquence d’une idéologie.
He is not a psychopat but a well manipulated person against his own humanity the real criminals are behind him.
How can a such nice and normal guy in his physic go so far
to such an easy blind and unhuman act without beeing
strongly conviced by his mind of the goodness of his
action . ( and sorry I am really horrified to think
about this act .)
Ramadan Mubarak à vous et à tout musulman
Why, in whoever’s name anyone believes in, should everything revolve around which faith we follow?
Why is it that we are all reduced to which religion, culture or civilisation we supposedly belong to?
Why are human beings limited to one identity only, when what makes us able of performing both the worst and the best is precisely this diversity of what we are and belong to, religion and culture being only 2 of these.
Politicians are what they are because they have short-term, election-driven views of what is appropriate to say: probably mainly irresponsible little men and women, surfing on a wave of madness and stigmatizing the same ones again and again because they are too different from archaic views of what a country or a civilisation is. And because it serves them well, it would seem.
Are we now stuck in a world view where the only path to a decent peaceful life is to claim one’s moderation and distance from nutters who are ready to blow themselves up claiming they do it in the name of their God or to send a wakeup call to protect some values? How can we believe they do it in any God’s name? Why should we? Because they tell us? Because we are told by the powers that be? Because it is easier to read things in this way?
Why do people still put up with the enforced illusion of one identity overriding all the other ones, when it fosters so much suffering and violence?
It is mind-boggling, not that misled men would blow themselves up or blast buildings and kill to make themselves heard, but that the rest of us would fight them on the same sterile grounds: why should we see ourselves in the same way and tackle the issues they highlight using the same divisions? Religious. Cultural. Is our duty to speak up and react to these horrors only driven by the fact that we are believers of one kind or other? Or should we react simply because they are horrors and because we refuse to live in a society where these horrors do exist? Because we wish for a society where a little brotherhood would make us go a longer more peaceful way?
Why are we all so keen to only distance ourselves from self-declared followers of one particular faith when any other subject would more likely see us draw on other arguments to put our point through? Are genocides unbearable and fought against because they happen to a particular group or because they are large scale murders of humans? Don’t we see people raising and giving their best when natural catastrophes ruin livelihoods, people’s lives and countries? Don’t we see humans rallying up when they are called upon to finance medical research or support humanitarian aid in poverty ridden countries? Isn’t history full of the most unlikely individuals gathering up to fight injustice and speak up for a cause they believe in regardless of who stands next to them in unity? Isn’t “helping”, “loving”, “giving” and “supporting” the same words for any believer or non believer? Aren’t there hundreds of examples where this is demonstrated every day?
Sadly, nowadays, colonialist mentalities are so ingrained in the rhetoric and world vision of Western countries that very few, even among the most educated world wise of us, seem able to read and promote the world in a different way. Where is our sense of responsibility in being critical, in fighting imposed views, in refusing the rhetoric of those with an agenda, of getting reliable information to make informed choices and express strong opinions? Why do we accept to be diminished and jailed into boxes which separate us from each other instead of exercising our right and duty to stand up to all of those who benefit from it? Because “they” do benefit from it.
Accepting to be conned into believing that communities can learn to live together, that civilisations should work at fighting the alleged clash, should accept each other… It is beneath what we, humans, are. “Communities” (read “religious communities”, of course), “accepting”, “clash of civilisations”? What is that? We belong to so many groups that we enter and leave as we live! And “being accepted”? How arrogant to think that anyone has a right to accept or refuse someone else! So, what does anyone want? What has anyone a right to? “Being accepted” or simply “being”?
Again: what is all this? What is all this but playing others’ little games and making their lives easy; making ourselves victims of diminished cultures and a distorted, instrumentalized History which supposedly separate us; giving up on our free will; surrendering part of our humanity; living less of a human life. Why should we live with that?
And… Does my religion matter in this?
Thanks for writing this article at this time. I’m really afraid of the escalating anti Muslim campaigns in the media. Especially with the deteriorating economic situation in Europe and US I believe the climate is very ripe for extremist right-wing movements and racist groups to blame Muslims for all Western failure and harp on people’s fears to win the elections. I hope our fears will not guide us in the wrong direction, because it is mainly fear that drives people to insane reactions and aggressive behaviors. We need to resist those plastic stereotypes they seek to clothe us (Muslims) with as being cultural psychopaths and modernization outcasts.
Thanks again prof. Ramadan and Ramadan Karim.
Autochtones(without any discriminatory feeling but as historical fact) europeans has to be rassured that the principle of freedom will stik as a fundamental pillar for ever in Europe because it is a fundamental principal that
foundate the european culture wich gives also to Islam his space of expression , to everyone his religious conviction but Europe it’s only one .
And christianity has been destroyed since a long time
by the excessive apeal to total freedom and “liberation”
from the dogmatic church . See the facts : how many poeple
are still going sunday to the church ? And Islam has nothing to do with this; but once again let’s charge bad posture to this unknown but named Islam it’s a well solded
nowadays target . Wat a stupid confusion.
And more than this, even if islam is developping it self in Europe it doesn’t absolutely means that that europe will become a “Souk of medieval oriental behaviours” that’s pure demagogy of speculating on unknown future and this is
total political irresponsability, yes indeed !
Because instead of constructing on good perspectives,those detractors construct on fears , horrible perspectives
and crazy sénarios.This is full political incompétence
but it doesn’t mind nobody among the population knows it !
We love you Sir Tariq Ramadan for giving us this site
of expression to defend the silence of muslims.( literrally : effective peacefull poeple,or poeple obliged by Allah to peace ,saying positively hello and high every time)
You should be ashamed of yourself Dr Ramadan. This is weak, syllogismic nonsense.