[This is the ninth part of a ten-part series. To read more, see Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 here.]

Caffè Italiano: The two meet again and over coffee and begin conversing.

EU bureaucrat: My boss thinks the integration of Muslims in Europe is a big issue.

Islamofactist: She’s right. But does she think it has succeeded?

EU bureaucrat: Unfortunately, not.

Islamofactist: Why not?

EU bureaucrat: She thinks we’ve failed them because the EU hasn’t done enough. If we had, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

Islamofactist: Apportioning responsibility for this only to the EU is methodologically weak. We need to approach the issue using the Islamofactist method.

EU bureaucrat: Can it factually determine whether integration has worked or not, including who is responsible for what’s happened?

Islamofactist: Of course. It’s quite straightforward. First, we use the EU principles as our criterion. Then, we take established facts and assess them using those principles. Voilà! We have the answer.

EU bureaucrat: It’s that simple?!

Islamofactist: Indeed, it is. Let’s begin. The fact is, there are “Common Basic Principles” for immigrant integration policy in the European Union. They state that integration is “a dynamic, two-way process of mutual accommodation by all immigrants and residents of Member States.”

EU bureaucrat: Two-way, huh? Interesting. When did the EU adopt that?

Islamofactist: More than 20 years ago.

EU bureaucrat: Can you give me examples of some of its principles?

Islamofactist: Sure. Here are some other facts: The common framework says, “Integration implies respect for the basic values of the EU”; “Employment is a key part of the integration process”; “Basic knowledge of the host society’s language, history and institutions is indispensable to integration”; and acquiring the language and culture of the host society should be an important focus.

EU bureaucrat: OK, but the practice of diverse cultures and religions is guaranteed under the Charter of Fundamental Rights and must be safeguarded. Correct?

Islamofactist: That’s correct, but there’s a condition attached. These are guaranteed and safeguarded “unless practices conflict with other inviolable European rights or national law.”

EU bureaucrat: In our office, everybody thinks the responsibility for successfully integrating Muslims falls only on the EU. But from what you are telling me, it almost seems migrants also have some responsibility to integrate based on the principles the EU adopted.

Islamofactist: Indeed, they have. According to EU norms, immigrants have the responsibility to mingle with the local population. The principles state, “Frequent interaction between immigrants and EU citizens is a fundamental mechanism for integration.”

EU bureaucrat: But what if their cultural and religious practices do not fit into European culture?

Islamofactist: The fact is that the 2,618th EU Council Meeting addressed that possibility too. It states, “However, Member States also have a responsibility to ensure that cultural and religious practices do not prevent individual migrants from exercising other fundamental rights or from participating in the host society. This is particularly important as it pertains to the rights and equality of women, the rights and interests of children, and the freedom to practice or not to practice a particular religion.”

EU bureaucrat: It’s interesting that they should mention women and children. It almost seems they are anticipating resistance or trouble on that score.

Islamofactist: Yes. The same Council meeting explicitly mentions “unacceptable cultural and religious practices that clash with fundamental rights.”

EU bureaucrat: And what can the EU do when they do?

Islamofactist: If needed, they may be curbed by “legal coercive measures.”

EU bureaucrat: Now that we have the criterion, tell me the facts about integration.

Islamofactist: Think of integration as being manifested on three levels: physical, cultural and the intent towards integration. Let’s start with the physical level, which means the extent to which immigrants and locals live in the same neighborhoods.

EU bureaucrat: How does it look at the physical level?

Islamofactist: Not good. In 2005, it was reported in the UK that “Asian Muslim ghettos have kept growing fast … hindering integration.” This “ghettoization” has been most visible in Leicester, Birmingham and Bradford, followed by London and others. According to Ali Noorizade, who heads the Arab-Iranian Studies Center in London, “the problem has been that the ghettos are a voluntary creation by mostly Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants, not something the society has forced upon them.”

EU bureaucrat: And France?

Islamofactist: In France, Muslims are concentrated in the poor suburbs of Paris, Lille, Lyon, Marseille and other cities. The BBC reported in 2005, “Ghettos also threaten another tenet of French identity — secularism.”

EU bureaucrat: Belgium? Germany?

Islamofactist: In Belgium, there is Molenbeek. In Germany, immigrant-majority neighborhoods such as Neukölln in Berlin were once German working-class areas, but are now largely Muslim ghettos.

EU bureaucrat: But why not let them live where they want to?

Islamofactist: Because there are places where extremist thought can thrive. In Germany, more than 1,000 Muslim protesters have demonstrated in the streets of Hamburg, calling for the establishment of a caliphate.

EU bureaucrat: A caliphate! Do they want to replace the EU? We can’t have that! There are jobs involved.

Islamofactist: Alas, they would like to do so if they had their way. There was outrage, of course, after it happened. The former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a former Hamburg mayor, said such violations had to be prosecuted. The German Economy Minister and vice-chancellor, Robert Habeck, said the demonstration “is no longer based on the constitution.” It doesn’t end there. In Sweden, there is the city of Malmö, which was supposed to be “a symbol of Sweden’s multiculturalism. But it is in danger of turning into an Islamist ghetto, with a hard core of those who favor an Islamic state.”

EU bureaucrat: But these are recent integration problems, correct?

Islamofactist: Incorrect. The fact is, the phenomenon of Muslims resisting integration goes back decades. For example, again in Germany, a 2009 study by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development showed that Turkish immigrants remain the worst integrated among the “guest workers” who came to the country from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. They were “faring badly … even after 50 years and three generations in some cases.”

EU bureaucrat: Fifty years! If integration has failed at the physical level, what about on the cultural plane? Say, women’s rights and education?

Islamofactist: More of the same. In Germany in 2023, the fact is that the Green Party stated in a policy document that the integration of people from Islamic societies had shown deficits. This is often due to customs that alienate the migrants, such as women being forced into early marriage, veiling practices, and “honor killings.” In addition, there are problems with gang and juvenile delinquency, social neglect and restrictions against women’s sexual self-determination increasing amongst certain groups in the immigrant communities. The party demanded that migration to the European Union and Germany be organized in such a way that it is acceptable and bearable not only for the people who migrate, but also for those who already live there.

EU bureaucrat: What’s the situation in the UK?

Islamofactist: The fact is, many immigrant Muslims are poorly integrated because of their reluctance to learn English. Government-sponsored studies have found that “Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic groups have the lowest levels of English language proficiency of any Black or Minority Ethnic group — and women in those communities are twice as likely as men to have poor English.” 43.8% of women from Bangladesh and 35.6% from Pakistan could not speak English or well at all.

EU bureaucrat: All these concerns seem overblown to me. We can’t really assume that Muslims don’t intend to integrate. Any facts on that point?

Islamofactist: Yes. Intention is best expressed through action and words. In opposition to the EU norm that “acquiring the culture of the host society should be an important focus,” Muslims have refused to accept the principle of laicité, the principle of state secularism. It is considered “a bedrock of modern France.”

EU bureaucrat: How does Islamic thought view the West?

Islamofactist: It looks down upon it.

EU bureaucrat: How can you possibly say that?

Islamofactist: The fact is that the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1990, reaffirms “the civilizing and historical role of the Islamic Ummah, which God made the best nation” and that the “role that this Ummah should play to guide a humanity confused by competing trends and ideologies and to provide solutions to the chronic problems of this materialistic civilization.”

EU bureaucrat: Well, they have a point. Confused and materialistic, we certainly are. I’m sure they don’t advise Muslims in the West not to integrate. 

Islamofactist: Wrong. The fact is, the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) published a plan entitled “The Strategy for Islamic Cultural Action outside the Islamic World” that urged Muslims living outside the Islamic world to preserve “their spiritual and moral superiority and distinguishability.” This strategy was adopted by the 9th Islamic Summit Conference in Doha, Qatar, in November 2015.

EU bureaucrat: But surely, integration is bound to accelerate from generation to generation.

Islamofactist: Wrong. According to research, the lack of integration is generally considered more pronounced in the second and third generations of Muslims in the West compared to the first generation of immigrants.

EU bureaucrat: Any advice to Muslims not to integrate?

Islamofactist: Yes. It could not be clearer. The Strategy wants “to immunise the second, third and even fourth generations of those communities, who settled outside the Islamic world, against cultural assimilation and loss of their Islamic identity[…]”.

EU bureaucrat: Immunize second, third and even fourth generations! But what’s their intention? 

Islamofactist: The strategy advises that the “social, cultural and economic” roles Muslims in non-Muslim countries occupy within host societies will bolster Islam’s continuity outside the Islamic world.

EU bureaucrat: “Occupy”! I find the choice of that word aggressive. Are they open to compromise? 

Islamofactist: No. The fact is, the Cairo Declaration also states, “the fundamental rights and freedoms according to Islam are an integral part of the Islamic religion and that no one shall have the right as a matter of principle to abolish them either in whole or in part or to violate or ignore them in as much as they are binding divine commandments … the neglect or violation thereof is an abominable sin…”. Accordingly, every person is individually responsible — and the Ummah collectively responsible — for their safeguard.

EU bureaucrat: You are making it sound sinister. Are you saying Muslims can’t be loyal to their countries?

Islamofactist: The fact is that a 1989 document from the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), based in Virginia, USA, stated that ultimate loyalty to the nation-state is both “impossible and blasphemous” for Muslims.

EU bureaucrat: But you can’t suspect them of not being loyal citizens.

Islamofactist: I am merely repeating the facts that they have stated.

EU bureaucrat: But surely, they could not have meant it! Do they intend to harm us?

Islamofactist: The fact is an earlier Muslim Brotherhood Explanatory Memorandum in 1990, entered as evidence in a US Federal Court in the US v. Holy Land Foundation trial, states, “The Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ’sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

EU bureaucrat: But surely, today’s leaders in the Muslim world regard this as outdated!

Islamofactist: Wrong. The fact is that in 2011, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan publicly called upon the Turks living in Germany — some for more than four generations — “not to assimilate.” The German newspaper Spiegel International commented, “It was a speech that did nothing to reinforce any feeling of belonging to Germany.”

EU bureaucrat: But surely, ordinary Muslims will be more amenable to integration with respect to their religion.

Islamofactist: Wrong. The fact is, “Religious tensions in French workplaces have reached their highest level since records began in 2013,” with Islam accounting for 81% of religious incidents at work. In addition, “tensions surrounding religious symbols, prayer practices and employees’ views on women are taking a toll on organizational harmony … Requests for schedule adjustments to accommodate religious observances and prayer breaks are also frequent among Muslim employees, complicating workplace management.” The 2024 Baromètre du Fait Religieux en Entreprise by Institut Montaigne identified the rising visibility of Islamic practices as a key driver of workplace challenges. 

EU bureaucrat: Have European leaders said anything about this?

Islamofactist: From time to time. In 2011, the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, considered state multiculturalism a failure. Cameron called for greater scrutiny of Muslim groups that aim to get public money but do little to tackle extremism. He asked: “Let’s properly judge these organisations: Do they believe in universal human rights — including for women and people of other faiths? Do they believe in equality before the law? Do they believe in democracy and the right of people to elect their own government? Do they encourage integration or separatism?”

EU bureaucrat: Anything from German leaders?

Islamofactist: Yes. The fact is that Chancellor Angela Merkel said that attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have “utterly failed.” The “multikulti” concept — where people of differing cultures can “live side-by-side” — did not work. She called for immigrants to do more to integrate, such as learning German.

EU bureaucrat: Anything from the French?

Islamofactist: Yes. President Macron has vowed to crack down on “Islamist separatism.” He also gave a speech with proposals to integrate Islam and French secularism. In his view, Islamic separatism “often results in the creation of a counter-society and whose manifestations are the dropping out of school of children, the development of sports, cultural and communal practices which are the pretext for the teaching of principles which do not conform to the laws of the republic.”

EU bureaucrat: Anything from Sweden?

Islamofactist: Yes. In 2022, the Swedish Prime Minister stated that the integration of immigrants has failed, leading to “parallel societies” in Sweden.

EU bureaucrat: So many disturbing facts! Do you have any idea what the root cause of this reluctance to integrate is?

Islamofactist: Good question. One must go back to the Qur’an that is the final and eternal command for Muslim behaviour. Recall surah 5:51 that instructs Muslims, “O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are [in fact] allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you — then indeed, he is [one] of them.” Recall also that the Qur’an calls Muslims “the best community ever raised for humanity” and that “those who disbelieve from the People of the Book … are the worst of all beings.”

EU bureaucrat: Just because it’s written in the Qur’an doesn’t mean Muslims follow it in the West.

Islamofactist: It very much does. In her book Unveiled, the ex-Muslim Yasmine Mohammed writes how her mother used to show her Qur’an verse 5:51 to forbid her from becoming friends with non-Muslim Canadian girls. Her mother would even taunt her by asking why she was such a “kaffir lover.” Remember, the fact is that no Muslim can go against what is written in the Qur’an. 

EU bureaucrat: Good heavens! Do you realize the implications of what you are saying? 

Islamofactist: That’s for you to realize. I am just an Islamofactist, only presenting facts. Did our talk today make sense?

EU bureaucrat: From what I gather, Islamofactism shows that there is a pattern of failure of Muslim integration in Europe. It is manifested at the physical and cultural level, and there is an active hostility to integrate based upon eternal Quranic commands. I’ll have to talk to my boss, obviously. Between you and me, I am disturbed. 

Islamofactist: Well, I hope I could change your perspective on how to talk about Islam and Muslims. It was nice meeting you. I’m off to London tomorrow. 

EU bureaucrat: London! Can you delay your departure by a day? I want my boss to meet you. It seems she’s been recounting all that I’ve told her to her bosses. Apparently, they’ve had meetings about it, too. Quite high-level. 

Islamofactist: OK. But no further delay. 

EU bureaucrat: (to the server) L’addition, s’il vous plaît. 

They tussle over who will pay the bill and decide to split it. Outside, each goes their way, melting into the crowds. 

[Cheyenne Torres edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.