I recently participated in a dialogue between American and Belgium Muslims in Belgium (Nov. 16-18), co-hosted by US Ambassador to Belgium Tom Korologos and Ambassador Claude Mission, the Director General of the Royal Institute for International Relations. An interesting group of 32 American Muslim scholars and intellectuals, community leaders, journalists and activists joined 70 of their counterparts from the Belgium Muslim community to discuss their mutual condition and explore possibilities for further dialogue and civic cooperation.

Belgium has a population of ten million and 5% of them � over 500,000 � are Muslims. Muslims also constitute about 20% of the population of Brussels, the capital of the European Union. Over 300,000 Belgium Muslims are of Moroccan ancestry and over 160,000 are Turkish. The rest include Balkan Muslims, South Asians and some non-Moroccan Arabs.

Like in France, Muslims in Belgium have enough presence to now become the �other� against whom Belgian indigenous identity is constructed. Repeatedly one heard Muslim and Non-Muslim Belgians refer to even second generation Turkish and Moroccan Muslims as "foreigners" or immigrants even though they were Belgium born, Dutch and French speaking legal citizens.

Unlike American Muslims, Belgium Muslims enjoy a strong representation in the government. They boast of two National Senators and five members in the lower house of Parliament. But unlike American Muslims they have very few civil society institutions. There are no Muslim organizations that fight for Civil rights and oppose discrimination. Even though there are over 350 mosques in tiny Belgium, Belgium Muslims remain underrepresented in most institutions of the civil society as well as the Belgium state.

A peculiar aspect of the Belgium Muslim community is the presence of government paid Imams and teachers. The Belgium government employs over 800 Imams and teachers who teach Islam and Arabic in schools and lead prayers in mosques recognized by the government. It is clear that the Belgium government has tried to co-opt Islam by hiring the Islamic teachers, financing and supporting mosques and by now creating an Executive that will govern Islamic affairs in Belgium.

The common themes discussed were issues of rising Islamophobia and the meaning of acceptance, multiculturalism and pluralism. Both communities found the challenge of constructing identities, which incorporated both the Islamic dimension and citizenship in the West fascinating. Americans found that the presence of a large indigenous Muslim population in the US, nearly 35% of American Muslims are Black, White and Hispanic, made the collective identity formation of American Muslims more complicated than that of Belgium Muslims whose fault lines were primarily ethnic.

While American Muslims lamented their inability to have a role in policy making in the US, Belgium Muslims' primary concern was systematic discrimination in the market place. Muslims with law degrees could not find jobs for years. People's application for jobs and for renting apartments was simply rejected based on their Muslim names. American Muslims were shocked to hear some of the stories of discrimination and humiliation that Belgium Muslims faced on a daily basis.

As I sat listening to the stories of Muslim life in Belgium, I caught myself repeatedly touching the tiny US flag on my lapel. Uncle Sam sure looked mighty friendly and hospitable from cross the pond. While discrimination against Muslims in America has certainly risen after 9/11, it looked insignificant compared to what Muslims in Belgium faced routinely.

Belgium's Muslims have a dearth of scholars and intellectuals as a result they are far behind American Muslims on the subject of adapting their faith to the local context.

American Muslims are streets ahead of other Western communities. Not only are there a large number of scholars pushing for this in the US, but also national organizations and many prominent Islamic centers recognize the need to adapt Islam to American conditions. An excellent example of this is the adoption of the guidelines for women friendly mosques, developed last year by Muslim organizations, by many Islamic centers. We can see American Islam in the progressive role that women play in American Muslim community, and in Islamic scholarship. Another important indicator is the absence of embedded radicalism in American Islam.

Muslims in Europe are connected to the state but marginalized from the mainstream society. American Muslims are alienated from the state but are quite integrated in the society. European Muslims benefit from state largesse, while American Muslims have enjoyed the fruits of American multiculturalism, religious tolerance, and economic and educational opportunities. Muslims in Europe cause a sense of uneasiness among the host population that is racist, xenophobic and fearful. American Muslims on the other hand are more accepted. As it becomes more and more evident that American Muslims had nothing to do with 9/11, the barriers to their reentry into the mainstream are slowly melting away.

I came home from Belgium wishing that like Belgium Muslims we too had a senator or two and a few congressman to represent us in the highest corridors of power. But I also came home with greater appreciation for the enormous opportunities we enjoy in the US and also grateful for the incredibly low levels of discrimination and exclusion that we experience in the US. Most importantly, I am proud of the vibrant, intellectually alive and traditionally rich Islam that we practice in the US with no financial favors from the government.

Good article Muqtedar.

Almost a year before 911, I was doing a consulting gig in Munich. While trying to rent an apartment, I got around some of the discrimination because I put "American" in the nationality section of rental applications. But my Indian colleagues were not as lucky. I couldn't wait to end my assignment and come home.

Excellent article and so true. I have so many relatives on continental Europe - particularly Scandanavia and Holland - that when they get their permanent residency, they move to the UK. The atmosphere is such that they feel unwelcome and are gratified and relieved at the difference in the UK

Notwithstanding all the problems in the US, it's a great place to emigrate too - both the society at large and the gov't are welcoming.

Don't forget about where I live - Canada. It is also another great place to come and live. I thank God that my parents were lucky enough to be accepted here.

It's an interesting article, for sure. I am a Brussels resident, and to be frank, I never saw Muslim women begging on the streets. Most beggars are organized Eastern-European gangs and locals. My guess is that it was an imposter, using the scarf just to draw attention and get some money.

It is true that the Belgian government does a lot for Muslims. Immans are state-paid, and it's illegal to phrase anti-Muslim remarks in public. You will not be harassed if you phrase anti-Christian remarks, but you will be fined or put on trial when you admit to be anti-Muslim.

It's also true that there is a very generous social security system in Belgium, and we have a guaranteed income for those who don't work. Muslims are over-represented in that system, but only males. Women and girls find work easily, they study longer, and they are under-represented in crime statistics.

But it's also true that most street crime in Brussels and in Antwerp (another large Belgian city) is perpetrated by male Moroccan youth gangs. I myself was beaten once up into hospital at night, once robbed of my cell phone by Moroccans, and one time harassed by Algerians that were vandalizing a public railway rest room.

Those are not isolated incidents at all. Local women that walk lightly dressed in summer are often scorned as "whores" by Moroccan male youth, and male ǃ˙Muslimsǃ˘ do most violent rape in Northern Europe.
http://fjordman.blogspot.com/2005/12/immigrant-rape-wave-in-sweden.html

I am also residing in the island of Mindanao, Philippines, 5 months per year. It's interesting to observe the difference between the position of Muslims in Mindanao on one hand, and in ǃ˙Eurabiaǃ˘ on the other. We in "Eurabia" can draw valuable lessons from the Philippine approach.

The rest of my comment you can read on my weblog and in your weblog's comment section....

And what do you mean by "the Philippine approach"?

I've lived in Belgium for the past four years, in a small city on the French side. It's a beautiful place, and I love it . . . but since this past summer, when I came home from university in Canada wearing hijab, my perceptions of my home have changed. People would glare, swear, and sometimes mildly threaten me on the main street; either that or they'd take it upon themselves to speak pityingly Ò and condescendingly Ò to me. I have been soured on Belgium, and when I hear stories from women who are more 'identifiably Muslim' than I would be if I didnÌt wear hijab, I know I got off lightly. I now live in Canada full-time. I feel like I can never go home. I know that Canada and the US have their own problems, but no one in my little conservative Maritime village has EVER been rude to me.

I'd like to add (seeing how negative my previous comment looks) that there were also many Belgians who went out of their way to be polite and kind.