If we are to try to be faithful to the message and act in harmony with the direction it gives, we must take the process of putting down roots to its conclusion in order to serve “all humankind” and to know better those with whom we are living. If the nations and tribes were first constituted, as the Qur’an says, in order that people should seek to know one another better, it seems evident that the people who make up one society should acquire an even deeper mutual knowledge. Moreover, if the message of Islam is really universal, many of the values it promotes should inevitably be accessible to and shared by human beings of other traditions who live with other convictions. On the level of values, of morality, of the demand for social justice and resistance to discrimination of all kinds, Muslim citizens find a great number of potential partners in all Western societies. After all, their values are shared by the vast majority of the population, even if committed Muslims find themselves engaged on the ground with only the small, actively resistant minority. It is because of this, and because of the clearly understood sense of the universality of the values to which they subscribe, that Muslims should, as we have said, avoid the trap of the minority temptation. Establishing partnerships at the local level is the best way of allowing this transformation of their state of mind to take place.
These actions must be considered at several levels: the promotion of an ethic of responsibility can take place with partners of other religions, ecological groups (as in France, Belgium, and Switzerland), alternative movements, and so on. Commitment to respect for human rights is already expressed through innumerable bodies with which Muslim citizens in all the Western countries are too little in contact. Fear, and sometimes mutual suspicion, has long prevented the formation of links with bodies such as the League of Human Rights, ATTAC, Globalize Resistance, and the alternative banks, but things evolve, and Muslim associations are increasingly establishing connections beyond “the community.” Groups of associations, such as “Divers-Cite´” in the Lyon region (and other towns in France, such as Maintes-la-Jolie and Roubaix) and local partnerships in some cities in the United States (such as Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles) and in Canada (Toronto, Ottawa) show that the process is slowly moving forward and that new and essential perspectives are opening up with regard to the settlement of Muslims in their society. The creation of multidimensional partnerships is one of the keys to the future: not only will it confirm to Muslims that their values are shared, but it will make it possible for their fellow-citizens better to gauge how and why the presence of Muslims in the West, with the vitality of their organizations and their convictions regarding social mission, is a source of enrichment for the society they share in common.
