In Italy a court has ruled that the deportation of an imam last year was unlawful. In the UK, an imam has been held in prison since May and is due to appear in court next week on a range of charges. In France, several imams have been deported and the government plans to change the law so that imams must be fluent in French and have studied French law, culture and history. In the Netherlands, such a law has already been introduced and imams now have to learn Dutch and attend courses on Dutch values. In Germany, a similar law has been suggested by politicians.
All these moves are seen by some Muslims as a deliberate assault on Islam and as proof absolute that Islam is under attack in the West. That opinion is wrong. The attacks on mosques and schools are without question acts of Islamophobia — but they are the acts of twisted individuals and not of governments.
In fact what is being proposed in France and happening in the Netherlands should be welcomed by Muslims worldwide. Islam needs to indigenize across Europe. If imams cannot speak the local language and understand the local culture, how can Islam spread? How can Islam be understood properly if imams are unable to reach out and communicate with the indigenous population? Any religion that remains isolated within an ethnic minority and a foreign language is doomed because that minority and its language will eventually disappear through assimilation. It is already happening in France. Increasingly, third and fourth generation descendants of North African immigrants have only the most rudimentary knowledge of Arabic. French is their language, France their country, French values their values. They are part of the majority. Islam needs to reach out to the majority. The French and Dutch moves are therefore positive, not negative — which is why, in the Netherlands, the change in the law has been welcomed by the overwhelming majority of Dutch Muslims.
As for the arrest and deportation of certain imams, the fact is that they would certainly be arrested in most Muslim countries for preaching hate, violence and views wholly at variance with Islam. It has been a source of amazement that the UK authorities refrained for so long from arresting Abu Hamza, the north London imam, now detained, who persistently preached racial hatred and encouraged violence. The imam the Italians deported publicly supported Osama Bin Laden and attacks on Italian troops in Iraq. These people have done great damage to Islam. They make it appear an intolerant faith to non-Muslims. Things which contribute to that impression must be changed and put right.
Islam has no national identity. It is not the private religion of Arabs or Pakistanis or Turks or any other nation. It belongs to all humanity. It has to be as accessible to the average Frenchman or Dutchman just as it is to the average Indonesian or Bangladeshi or Egyptian. That means imams who speak French, Dutch, German or whatever, who are French, Dutch, German or whatever. Otherwise, a great religion will be condemned to the ghettos.
