Europe’s ‘Others’?

1. Europe’s ‘Others’? Young people, Islam and European identity Susan Condor Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and European identity.

2. Imagining Europe and its ‘Others’:Views from the interviews Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and European identity.

3. What is European? • Diversity • “ the countries are just totally different. How can we all be part of one when they think that, we think this?” • “a sort of mesh, a mix of people and cultures and countries” • Common values & ‘culture’ • “a place of common values” • “Europe... is the centre of global culture” Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and European identity.

4. What is Not European? The (North) American “Europe is the solution to the American Empire with all the globalisation that’s happening” “To me being European is a sort of defence against the culture of American individualism” The Islamic “I think Europe is Christian. And I don‘t want to say that Islam is worse or better.“ “Europe to me means democracy, it means not being dominated by religious dogma, unlike Muslim countries today”.

5. Islam as Other Little ‘blatant’ prejudice Subtle Islamophobia: Their ‘difference’ from ‘us’ Symbolic Islamophobia (modernity, civilization) Religion: not Christian, not secular Values: democracy, human rights Social & political concerns: (animals, women) Threat: Cosmopolitanism Global faith versus territorial loyalties Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and European identity.

6. Young Muslims in Europe:Responses to the survey Survey respondents’ religious identity: None/agnostic: 1887 (40%) Roman Catholic: 1630 (35%) Protestant/ C of E: 721 (15%) Muslim 194 (4%) Most Muslim respondents: Manchester (54) Vienna (41) Vorarlberg (48) Bielefeld (41) Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and European identity.

7. Are young Muslims more inclined to identify with a global community? Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and European identity.

8. Territorial identity:State and European attachment Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and European identity.

9. Are young Muslims less concerned about national security? Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and European identity.

10. Do young Muslims have ‘different’ social and political concerns? Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and European identity.

11. Conclusions (1) • Young people from all research sites could view Islam as beyond the acceptable boundaries of Euro-diversity • Islam often understood as the antithesis of ‘European’ values and as a threat to the integrity and security of ‘European’ territorial identities • The young Muslim Europeans did on average identify more strongly with a global community than agnostic and protestant respondents. BUT… Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and European identity.

12. Conclusions (2) • …The young Muslims on average identified as highly as other young Europeans with the State in which they lived and with Europe (& the EU) • …They were, on average, as much, if not more, concerned about national security and the threat of terrorism • …They were, on average, generally concerned about similar social and political issues • …On average, they displayed less individualistic values, and more concern for values of equality BUT… Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and European identity.

13. Coda …we should be wary of countering one stereotypical representation with another Young Muslim Europeans may not, statistically, conform to the ‘folk devils’ of majority imagination but neither are they, in reality, a singular, monolithic, group Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and European identity.