By Tariq Ramadan

Lack of opportunities, social and economic inequalities, and the stigmatization of Islam have marginalized the young generation of Muslims in both France and Britain. What should be done?

The French Mirror of Britain

The rioting in Clichy and in several other suburbs in France has stirred keen interest in Great Britain. There have been attempts to understand how “the French system of integration has failed”—the mirror image of what took place last summer when, following the bombing attacks in London, French commentators pointed to the incipient collapse of British multiculturalism. One is left with the impression that, on both sides of the Channel, an attempt is being made to put one’s own apprehensions to rest by scrutinizing the shortcomings of one’s neighbor.

The comparison between the two systems of integration is inoperative. The British model is neither better nor worse than the French. Both, drawing on their respective histories, cultures and psychologies, have over time developed specific integration mechanisms. Among them we can identify achievements and failures, which in turn can only be understood as a function of each country’s socio-political, economic and cultural particularities. Each possesses its own unique collective intelligence, and must draw on its political and collective creativity to resolve crises. The present crisis commands our attention because it points to the way certain similarities, formulated as government policy or public debate, have fuelled social, cultural and religious tensions in both countries—as they have elsewhere in Europe.

But beneath everything else lurks the question of Islam, and the integration of Muslims. Whether dealing with issues related to secularism or to identity, analysts and politicians seem obsessed with the idea that Islam itself is the problem. Muslims cannot be truly European, they suggest, raising fears that Islam may prove to be a threat to public order. We are facing a case of political brinkmanship, a dangerous strategy that attempts to turn such fears to shortterm electoral advantage, using arguments that were once restricted to parties of the extreme right: the security psychosis, so-called national preference, and policies of discrimination that, in the public mind, become confounded with the question of immigration.