Where to start with this wonderful news? A Swiss referendum banning the construction of minarets in the country passed this weekend, with 57 percent of the vote and 22 of 26 cantons in favor. Europe has been beset by immigration ‘problems’ in recent years, and rising Muslim populations in many countries have caused a backlash of the worst xenophobic sorts:
But others say the referendum campaign incited hatred. On Thursday the Geneva mosque was vandalised for the third time during the campaign, according to local media.
Yeah, that’s a great way to make your religious minorities feel safe and welcome! Desecrate their places of worship—why didn’t we think of that before?
If there is one thing America does better than Europe, it’s immigration policy (and, as that link shows, it’s not just immigration from Muslim countries that Europe can’t handle). Europe has consistently shoved its Muslim minorities out of sight and out of mind. Most famously, the Parisian suburbs exploded in riots in 2005 , because, well, French racism is overwhelming. A staggering quarter of French ‘North African’ university graduates are unemployed. This 2005 commentary from RAND clearly lays out the problem:
The French won’t do it. Minareted mosques are not welcome among the churches. Muslim bureaucrats are few and politicians almost non-existent. Muslim customs — such as the wearing of headscarves by women and girls in school — are not tolerated even when they would be acceptable in most countries. The worst, of course, is the inability of Muslims to get jobs on a fair basis. The French say that affirmative action violates the principle of equality. But simple experiments using Arab and French names on employment applications have shown that the French believe discrimination against Muslims apparently does not.
Problems are similar all across Europe. The substantial Turkish minority in Germany is the product of decades-old guest-worker policies: the Germans assumed the Turks would all go back one day, never figuring that life in Germany is usually vastly preferable than Turkey. As a result, Germany made no attempts to integrate its Turkish minority, instead using them for their cheap labor class while denying any political rights. German citizenship law, until only ten years ago, was based strictly on jus sanguinis—right of blood. A Turk who had been living in working in Germany for 20 plus years had no path to citizenship. (A 1999 revision made it much easier for longtime resident foreigners, and especially their children, to receive citizenship.)
So, while Switzerland’s referendum is a particularly ugly example of European Islamophobia, it’s sadly by no means out of context. This is Europe’s biggest challenge: proving that the idea of Europe is not just reserved for natural-born Europeans. So far, the continent is failing dreadfully.
