Globalization and the conflict between Christian and Muslim society

9. Why do you think globalization is connected to the conflict between Christian and Muslim society? Considering the integration of Muslim immigrants in Europe, what do you think is the main problem to be solved now? Do you have any experience with this minority (Muslim immigrants) making demands and the perception of it in official places?

Answer by Jana Hybášková:

I never said globalization is connected to the conflict between Christian and Muslim society. There is no connection whatsoever.

Muslims in Europe are not a unified group. We can not generalize about their situation. The situation of Moroccans in the Netherlands differs from situation of Algerians in France, and the Kurdish situation in Sweden differs from that of Turks in Germany. We find among them huge religious, legal and ethnic differences. Any equalization is a mistake. We have to inform ourselves about their social and economic situation. We have to try to avoid their social exclusion, as we do now with the Roma population to support by all means their inclusion in our society - our country. We have to support their inclusion by all means in our society. The key issue is education and language. They should have an equal opportunity to gain skills, habits, norms, and education as our children do. Then they can be more close to finding more equal opportunities to enter the labor market and to improve their social position. Then, if they are confident and satisfied citizens, I am sure they will keep their customs and manners, knowledge of Islam as an additional cultural capital, not as the confirmation of social exclusion. The issue then is to design proper systematic way of social inclusion and equal opportunity.

The important political issue is the way many EU states interfere in Muslims' religious affairs, often with disregard towards differences between Sunnis and Shiites, between Turks and Kurds and Arabs, among Malikis, Hanbalis, for instance. We should be much more sensitive to our approach to The Muslim Council, for instance, in Germany. Neglecting one group because of another does not help.