Muslim Minority
Introduction
There is no consensus on the concept of the Muslim minority and the Islamic State, some theorists believe that if the proportion of the state more than 50. It inevitably becomes an Islamic state, and others argue that if Muslims are a majority compared to all other religions, then the state is entitled to be described as Islamic, then there are elites of jurists, particularly in the field of constitutional law, that the definition of these two concepts is linked to the supreme law of the country, the Constitution (Eder 2005).
It is no secret to every discreet follower that there are many difficulties to know the number of Muslim minorities in many regions of the world, either because of the poverty experienced by their countries or because of the successive political crises that prevent the authorities from going into such statistics to raise sectarian and ethnic problems.
As for the concerns of the Muslim minorities, except for the minorities living in the developed countries, which have different concerns, especially Islam phobia, the majority of minorities know the same challenges of poverty, persecution, war, conflict and ethnic persecution. Consider the map of political and military conflicts since the 1980s. The main areas of conflict are Muslim minorities, such as Jammu, Kashmir, East Turkistan, the Philippines, Burma, the Balkans, and others.
We must not forget that these minorities live politically marginalized, as the private and public intervene because they do not reach the public political sphere, and not to win local, legislative and regional elections, so that there are no demands in their favor, which is judged by the isolation, not to mention the prevalence of illiteracy in This is evident in Africa, particularly in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and among the large Muslim minorities in India and the Philippines.
In developed countries, Muslim immigrants have problems related to Islam phobia and xenophobia in general, and it is enough for those who want to expand the subject to refer to the writings of the German philosopher and thinker Jürgen Habermas, as it always indicates that the electoral factor and the need to mobilize more votes is the reason why Some European societies, including German society, are sick of stereotypes about Islam and Muslims, which feeds in the minds of Germans the «existence of national identity and culture in danger» or referred to as reference identity, and this identity is ignited by party politicians whenever they let Necessary to, as happened in the nineties when the advance of thousands of immigrants from the former Yugoslavia and asked for political asylum in Germany, sparking a whirlwind of political protests.
We need thousands of pages to write about the reality and the future of Muslim minorities in the world, but their reality in the circumstances of globalization, the problems of multiculturalism, and the globalization of human rights, the necessity of building the human family, the one and the home. It calls on countries and organizations with a great sense of civilization to play their historic role to take care of the future of these minorities, to formulate public policies and to consider binding international agreements. It unites, disperses, unites, disperses, keeps human beings, whatever their dignity, and makes them a positive member of the new world order.
The problem of minorities that has emerged recently in the Muslim world is new or contrived, or it has a huge amount of foreign incitement, and it really only emerged in the context of the conflict with the West, especially after the period of occupation and foreign influence, and it is known that the perception of social issues in general, Minorities in particular differ according to the different scientific perspective used in their study. Political sociology and other humanities differ from one cultural context to another. Sociology is linked to the civilizational context that it has produced and then the problems addressed by the West. This is a methodological mistake. There is no doubt that the use of this methodology and its terminology in the study of the Islamic case, which is different in quantity and quality from the situation, context and circumstances that have emerged in the West, leads to serious mistakes. Islamic political sociology, for example, is based on Western political sociology but we just say that it is not scientifically valid to study a phenomenon that has arisen in a different civilizational circumstance.
n this subject, ‘minorities’, which are either ethnic, religious, sectarian or linguistic minorities, the Islamic religious and civilizational perspective differs from other perspectives, especially Western ones. Islam, for example, does not differentiate between Muslims based on color, race and language, and for non-Muslim religious communities used Sharia The Islamic word for ‘people of dhimma’, which differs significantly in terms of moral and rights and rights of minorities, and also used the law of the term misguided groups or people of heresy to describe religious groups, such as Kharijites, Shiites, Mu’tazila and others.
Muslim minorities in the West, whether in European countries or the United States, are an important civilizational extension of the Arab and Islamic nations, given that Islamic culture is an essential component of Arab civilization. Hence the value of reliability as a bridge to Arab relations with the West.
The origins of Muslim minorities in the West date back to the Umayyad era in Andalusia, which saw the first transfer of Islam to Europe from its south-west, then Muslims arrived in the south of France, and then to Eastern Europe, when the Ottomans arrived in Vienna, capital of the Austrian Empire at that time. This led to a large convergence of Islam by the Balkans, a population that later formed the nucleus of the Muslim minorities presently in Eastern Europe, signaling a state of historical intertwining of Islamic culture with the West.
The Muslim community in the West has grown exponentially in recent years, with a growing number of Muslim minorities and a growing cultural and media activity. Statistics show that there are at least 7 million Muslims in the United States, and in recent decades there have been many Islamic organizations and cultural centers that have played a major role in the American arena. There are about 35 million Muslims in the EU, and Muslims are expected to make up about 10 percent of the total European population in 2020. Statistics show that the European Union has 7 thousand associations and Islamic centers and a mosque, benefiting more than 16 million Muslims.
Muslim minorities in the West have benefited from the political and cultural openness that exists there to present themselves strongly to the societies in which they have lived, but this has not prevented the concerns of the Muslim community abroad.
Muslim minorities faced significant challenges in the West, although they differed in the United States from the European Union, and within the Union there were country-specific problems. In the United States, Zionist control of the media played a major role in reducing the media visibility of Muslim minorities there, as Jews controlled the most important parts of the American economy.
The situation in the European Union varies from country to country, as we have already mentioned. In Italy, where there are more than one million Muslims and 80,000 Italians, and 450 mosques, the government still does not recognize Islam as an official religion. In Germany, where there are more than 3 million Muslims, most of them Turks, Germans still see Muslims as foreigners and a threat to society.
Muslims in Britain make up more than 5 percent of the total population, with more than two million people, of whom one third are of Indian descent. There are about 100 languages spoken by Muslims, with roots from 56 countries. Muslims have 600 mosques registered as religious charities, compared with 13 Founded in 1963, there are also 1400 Islamic associations.
The situation in Britain seems to be better than others. law views different ethnic groups positively and allows them a degree of differentiation. ‘With the freedom to express the political identity of nationalities, Muslims were able to express themselves in the political system.
In France, which has the largest Muslim community on its territory, where the number of Muslims about six million have 1300 mosques, and about 600 associations, local radio in addition to the presence of more than 100,000 Muslims of French origin, there is a marked confusion towards Muslims on the issue Integration and lack of clear policies to integrate immigrants. ” The issue of immigrants has taken a big place in the recent presidential elections, especially after the rise of the extreme right, which pledged to curb foreign immigration, so the government began a new policy to reduce xenophobia.
Other issues have begun regarding laws changing. Muslim women are being fined and penalized for their attire, such as wearing the veil. Several conservative groups and even a minister are supporting the decision of forbidding the veil and criminalizing it. However, some do not agree with this stance on the matter. State officials did not see this as fit due to it clashing with the principles of freedom of worship and expression. Tariq Ramadan, a Muslim modernist, has stated that the veil should not be a crime and offense (Cesario, 2010). Banning it would not solve the more serious ongoing issues in the country. Similar concerns like these are also occurring in Switzerland. A ban was thought to be forced to stop construction of mosque minarets (Cumming-Bruce & Erlanger, 2009). Communities worried as such a law might bring fear and rising tension between Muslims and the Swiss. However, the government still is not against the building of mosques, and they also tried affirming that this action is not to undermine the Muslim culture and tradition. Problems like these make sense in that fear grows in the communities as Muslims might not start to feel accepted, also presuming that xenophobia will be a common occurrence (Cumming-Bruce & Erlanger, 2009).
In any case, despite these challenges, Muslim minorities have emerged considerably in the last decade and have begun to present themselves strongly in Western societies, especially in light of the qualitative development of the Islamic presence in the West.
The recent period witnessed the emergence of a new Muslim generation that originated in the West and is saturated with its culture, so that the generation of this generation is in a better position compared to their predecessors who have suffered so much to integrate into Western societies, and the same period witnessed an increase in the cultural activity of Muslim minorities in the societies in which they live. In the west. But this surge in the Islamic presence in the West has begun to face other challenges of the last decade that have prevented its role from escalating.
These challenges stem from the nature of the relationship between the West in general and Islam, as they involve a considerable amount of contradictions that make their development a real problem, contradictions arising from the collision inherited in the relationship full of mutual suspicion since before the modern era, specifically the era of the Crusades A harsh confrontation between the two parties brought the political and religious together at the same time, even though this religious aspect of these wars was hiding behind political ambitions, and also despite the passing of many historical epochs. This is due to the ferocity of these wars, which kept them alive in the mindset of Arab, Islamic and Western alike.
Although the developments in the new world order have entailed an astonishing amount of communication between peoples regardless of their ethnic and cultural differences, the rising trend of globalization has fueled the idea of a clash between Islam and the West, especially with the enormous spread of the clash of civilizations.
In fact, there is a fundamental factor that has put Islam and globalization on the opposite side of the other. Contemporary globalization, through its novelty surveys, presents itself as an integrated system. In addition to its cultural and economic aspects, globalization aims politically to enable the Western-style democracy in terms of pluralism. , Giving opportunities for freedom of expression, and giving opinion through its channels.
In contrast, Islam is not a pure religion, but a comprehensive system of life and criticism of what it is trying to promote globalization, and has its own theses contrary to many aspects of globalization. The events of September 11, already one of the key milestones in the development of the international order of the post-Cold War world, have reinvigorated the idea of a clash of civilizations.
In fact, these events triggered a renewed debate about the relationship between the Muslim world, in the heart of which the Arab world, on the one hand, and the West, and at the heart of it, the United States of America, which stands alone at the top of the international system of the post-bipolar world, on the other hand, in a manner that tends to prevail rather than dialogue On this relationship.
All this means that this situation has negatively affected the situation of Muslim minorities in the West in general, although the situation in the United States where the events of September 11 took place is different from Europe, where the manifestations of discrimination against Muslims in the United States were most evident. Immediately after the events, some members of the Muslim community were killed there (Vembulu 2003).
It may be important in this context to note that the sense of civilization in the United States is less than that of Europe, and in parallel, there are historical relations and geographical relationship between the Arab and Muslim world on the one hand and Europe on the other hand, and this fact makes Muslim minorities in the West Europeans are better placed than in the United States.
The main problem is that the Muslim minorities in the West do not form a single unit, which facilitates the task of pressure on them, and this stems from the ethnic and linguistic pluralism of these minorities, who came to the West from different countries and to achieve different interests. This situation obliges the organizations that lead these minorities to play a greater role in their unification to be one front similar to the Jewish minority in American society.
More importantly, these organizations must present a correct image of Islam to the West. This requires the establishment of more Islamic cultural centers and the consolidation of existing ones. This is very important given the Western ignorance of many of the principles of Islam.
It remains to activate the role of Muslim minorities in the West and to strengthen their communication with the communities in which they live does not mean the dissolution of these minorities in those communities, but this means the loss of their differentiation, which constitutes a bridge between them and their homelands, and is relied on to create true relations between the West and Arab and Islamic countries, That the intent is to activate their communication and end their isolation to make them effective in the communities in which they exist.
This requires consolidating the doctrine of loyalty and fostering affiliation by these minorities to the Muslim world, and only by learning the right doctrine, especially for the new generation born in the West.
It goes without saying that the Arab and Islamic worlds are called upon to support Arab and Muslim minorities in the West, making them a voice in this vital region of the world, especially with the breakdown of borders and geographical divisions in our era, due to the tyranny of the communications and information revolution (Jordan 2008).
Conclusion
The situation of minorities has been a controversial issue in the field of research since the 1990s due to the new issues in which the minority community demands the realization of its rights that protect it from the turmoil faced by the world. A collection of challenges in the reality of the Muslim minority in Non-Muslim countries, and its impact on dealing with non-Muslims of the majority of different races and religions; This study will examine this relationship through the Islamic perspective in talking about the concepts of minority and majority, and its provisions governing both: the duties of minorities in exchange for the ruling majorities; This study focuses on highlighting the position of Islam in facing the challenges towards the Muslim minority by the non-Muslim majority, depending on the current situation in Non-Muslim countries. Texture induction approaches and analysis to demonstrate the concept of minority and the emergence of Muslim minorities and the attitude of Islam towards it, then definition of the state of Non-Muslim countries, and the statement of the challenges faced by the Muslim minority, and then detail the responsibilities of this minority in the face of these challenges and passing
