Building a bridge through Europe

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 06/30/2006 4:21 PM  |  Opinion

Ahmad Qisa'i, Aligarh, India

On June 20-21, the second International Conference of Islamic Scholars was held in Jakarta. Representatives from various Muslim countries, as well as representatives of other religious groups, were present for the two-day conference with the aim of building a better understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims through dialog, so as to eradicate hostilities and discord among them.

The conference tried to project a moderate Islam as the legitimate representative of Islam, in an effort to reject the increasing radicalism throughout the Muslim world.

At the conference, leaders of Nadhlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's two largest Muslim organizations, expressed their commitment to campaigning for moderate Islam to counter the emergence of militant groups. They said they would not seek strict religious formalism in pluralist Indonesia -- meaning the upholding of the outward signs and practices of the religion -- nor tolerate the use of violence in the name of religion.

At the same time, the results of a new international survey of more than 14,000 people in 13 nations (Britain, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Spain, Turkey and the United States) by Pew, as a part of Pew's Global Attitude Project for 2006, were released. The survey, conducted in April and May this year, found that Westerners and Muslims around the world have radically different views of world events, and each group tends to view the other as violent, intolerant and lacking respect for women. There is discord between the Muslim world and the West.

Muslims worldwide, including the large Islamic communities in Britain, France, Germany and Spain, broadly blamed the West, while Westerners tended to blame Muslims. Muslims in the Middle East and Asia depicted Westerners as immoral and selfish, while Westerners saw Muslims as fanatical.

The overall results of this survey, according Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, show that ""even though relations are not good, there has not been a spike in outright hostility between the two groups over the past year"". While both sides see relations as bad, it is, at least, ""not getting worse"".

Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world. Even though there has been an increase in Islamic radicalism in the country in recent years, the majority of Muslims in Indonesia have moderate views on Islam. The two largest Muslim organizations in the country, the NU and Muhammadiyah, represent this group of moderate Muslims.

It would be understandable then that an initiative to build a bridge between the opposing communities would come from the moderate Muslim community in Indonesia. However, if we believe the results of the Pew survey, Europe could be the starting point for building a bridge to improve the situation. Why?

There is one interesting thing in this year's survey; for the first time Pew interviewed Muslims in Europe as a group. Furthermore, the view from Europe could play a very important role in the process of creating a bridge between the widely divergent views of other Europeans and Muslims in Asia and the Middle East. Two reasons support this argument.

First, with support for terrorism declining in some Muslim countries surveyed, dropping dramatically in Jordan, where terrorist bombings killed more than 50 people in Amman in November, and two-thirds of the French public expressing a positive views of Muslims, and even larger majorities of French Muslims feeling favorable toward Christians and Jews, Muslims in Europe are less inclined to see a ""clash of civilizations"" than general publics in Europe and Muslims elsewhere.

Second, European Muslims lined up with European general publics on some issues, indicating that integration might be moving ahead better than recent events would suggest. Even though the survey found that British Muslims were highly critical of Westerners, holding negative views resembling those of Muslims in Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan and Nigeria, who generally saw Westerners as violent and immoral, for example, this view was not shared by Muslims in France, Germany and Spain.

Thus this distinct view of Muslims in Europe could be used as an initial foundation for creating better understanding and erasing discord between the Muslim world and the West. Moderate Indonesian Muslims have the opportunity to lead the way, but European Muslims have already shown the way.

Without undermining the potential and capabilities of Muslims in Indonesia to play an important role in bridging the gap between the Muslim world and the West, European Muslims have the edge. Their first-hand experience and contact with the West and age-old democratic practices in Europe, as compared to the peripheral geographic location of Indonesian Muslims with their young democracy, are more important than rhetoric and numerical strength. Experience is the best teacher.

However, unilateral steps will not yield any fruitful results without collaboration from the other side. Reciprocal actions by the West are also important to make the process successful. They have to change their views and policies toward the Muslim world, especially on Israel and Iraq. A balanced policy on these issues would certainly create a breakthrough and could yield positive results in the future.

For now, European Muslims have the edge to begin the arduous process of building a bridge that would minimize the gap and discord between the Muslim world and the West. At the same time, having numbers on their side, moderate Indonesian Muslims should no longer wait to play their own role in this process. Leave the rhetoric behind now and start the real work. A collective effort is much better than individual efforts.

The writer is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.