Tariq Ramadan: Muslims need to stop behaving like victims

This is an appeal to Western Muslims, but also to our non-Muslim fellow citizens. One year after the London bombings we have good reason to be concerned. The scars left by this atrocity and other terrorist attacks, and the ongoing "war against terror", have combined to portray Islam as a threat to Western societies. Fear, and the emotions that accompany it, has become a part of the public mindset.

In this climate, arguments that were previously the sole province of the extreme right have found space within mainstream political discourse. The past is reinterpreted so as to deny Islam any place in the creation of Western identity which is now frequently redefined as purely Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian.

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Meanwhile many politicians have opted for the dangerous rhetoric of defending "Western values" and seek to impose strict limitations on "foreigners", while at the same time putting in place a whole apparatus of new security laws to fight terrorism. Hardly a Western society has been spared its own debate on questions of "identity" or "integration", but the implicit terms of the debate are often reduced to a distinction between two entities: "We, Westerners" and "They, the Muslims".

Muslims have clear-cut alternatives faced with the new reality: they can adopt the attitude of the aggrieved victim or they can confront their difficulties. Nothing will change until they accept full responsibility for themselves, become constructively critical, and self-critical; until they respond to the creeping "evolution of fear" with a firmly grounded "revolution of trust".

It is clear that governments, here in Britain and elsewhere in the West, have a role to play in bridging divisions , and in tackling extremism. To call upon Muslim scholars and leaders to be involved in this process, as Tony Blair did after the 7 July attacks, was a positive initiative. But it is important not only to listen to the recommendations but also to be committed to implementing them.

Muslims will reject being dictated to, but the Government nevertheless has a crucial role in supporting and facilitating dialogue at the local level. The responsibility is a shared one however. Muslims must express confidence in themselves, in their ability to engage as full members of the societies in which they reside. The revolution I hope for requires self-confidence, especially among young Muslims. Their task is to reappropriate their heritage, and to develop toward it a positive yet critical intellectual attitude. They should affirm that the teachings of Islam summon Muslims to spiritual life and to self-reform, but that Muslims are also expected to respect the laws of the countries in which they reside.

Western Muslims must develop a critical discourse that rejects victimhood, and that criticises radical or literal readings of religious teachings. It is also important not to conflate or confuse religion with separate debates: social problems are not religious problems and have nothing to do with Islam as such.

Those who exploit divisions and fears seek to create precisely what they claim to combat: by perpetually accusing Muslims of not being integrated and of shutting themselves up in a religious identity, they try to isolate them. Thus, instead of withdrawing into isolation, Muslims in Britain and other European countries must make themselves heard, step out of their religious and social ghettos .

We must commit to a far deeper degree of integration or "social mixing" in education and in our cities. We ought for example to ask ourselves if faith-oriented schools, are a solution in achieving better understanding or whether they will be counterproductive.

Muslims have a responsibility to be fully engaged in helping to reconcile the societies in which they live with the proclaimed ideals of those societies. It is vital to constantly measure ideals and values against human rights and equality as they operate in practice, and Muslims must not be afraid to measure words against deeds.

But all of us, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, have a duty to address the flawed discourse that perpetuates the notion of "us" and "them". Our societies are awaiting the emergence of a new "we". A "we" that would bring together men and women of all religions and those without religion, who would undertake to resolve the contradictions of their societies. This coming together of citizens who seek to struggle together for their future, is also the best hope for isolating the extremists.

www.tariqramadan.org

The writer is professor of Islamic Studies at Oxford University. He will speak at Islam Expo which runs until Sunday at Alexandra Palace, London