A personal exploration
This essay follows the theme which I took up in my posting of March 2008:The origins and future of Christian Europe. In it I attempted to address the various issues affecting the continuity and future of our European civilization. The following exploratory essay takes this topic from a specific angle. However much we may consider ourselves to be part of a secular world, in which everyone has his own freedom of belief and worship as much or as little as one wishes, we cannot dismiss religion as a phenomenon of mere private interest. This is both because of sensitivities arising out of the ongoing social and cultural evolution of our societies but also because of the increased presence of people with a different religious background, most notably Muslims.
I have embarked upon this essay with an open mind, i.e. without any predetermined conclusion that merely required substantiation. I am not even sure whether the question raised in this essay, in the end, are the truly pertinent ones. The only point to make here is that, even though I respect each and everyone’s private inspirations of whatever attribution, I strongly cherish the secular outlook of the society in which I live, especially where it concerns the handling of our common public interests. Hence, when I raise the issue of renewed religious fervor, it is in that context that I wish to address it. Whether people become more or less religious is not of itself my immediate concern nor do I harbor any prejudices in this respect (1).
An overview of current trends
Most people of my generation have taken the ongoing secularization of our society largely for granted. This includes the rules and values that guide our public and social life and the key choices in our private life. Our understanding of history is the ultimate demise of dogma and superstition as a source of power and authority in the modern world. Indeed, our entire education was founded in the victory of rational observation, disciplined thought and rigid analysis and most of all in our freedom of expression and association. Gods nor priests had any serious role in this process.
God is not dead
In the mean time religion has all but disappeared from our public life. In part this is due to the revival of right wing religious sentiments, and secondly, largely as a result of massive immigration out of the Muslim world into European countries, we are forced to deal with many more people who are motivated by their religious dictates than have been around for considerable time. In essence the culture of Islam is felt by many as an alien reality in our society and this sentiment has as much fueled today’s social and religious antagonism as the Muslim culture or Islam may have fueled itself. Obviously the conflicts between the Arab world and the Western world have played an important role in filling people’s minds with the idea that in fact we are faced with an ongoing and age old religious strife rather than anything else.
Still, across the board, we can not say that religion itself has again become a major topic of consideration in the conduct of our public institutions. Our main response thus far has been to guard and where necessary to tighten the constitutional and legal framework both at national and European level aimed at securing the irrelevance of religious arguments in our public domain. At the same time we wish to secure everyone’s freedom of worship as a matter of our greatest privacy.
Remaining footholds of religion
Nonetheless, there are those who are not convinced that this framework is sufficiently solid and unambiguous. First of all the political spectrum of continental Europe includes a significant segment strongly associated with the various (Catholic and non-Catholic) denominations of Christianity. Although the parties concerned may be guided by religious convictions, their actions are by no means dictated by their religious institutions and authorities. They rather tend to secure their – predominantly center right - position through moderation and through a power strategy in which their ability to communicate and deal with all other segments of the political spectrum plays a key role. Any overt religious dogmatism would obviously stand in the way of this. Nonetheless, they do act as the guardians of the Christian legacy, not merely by emphasizing Christian values (which in fact are non-exclusive, as many are shared by other political parties) but also by securing all remaining constitutional arrangements in which Christianity has kept its foothold, most notably in education.
This is the second major reality. Although in most European countries the position and financial entitlements of Christian (catholic, protestant) schools are founded on the – liberal - principle of freedom of education, these entitlements nonetheless constitute a fixture in the overall fabric of schools and academic institutions. They have thus far been able to retain certain privileges, especially in respect of the selection of students and teachers. These privileges have become subject of increased scrutiny. For instance, in The Netherlands, the fact that certain Christian schools refuse to engage homosexual teachers or fire them if they ‘come out’ is severely criticized on the grounds of the principle of (and constitutional entitlement to) non-discrimination.
Just the same, one could say that such concerns are a trifle compared with the broader issue of an education system which so heavily depends on the availability and competence of confessional institutions. From a purely liberal perspective this could be seen as a self perpetuating force in favor of religious bias among a great many people in each new upcoming generation. However, I do not believe this is such a strong force nor is it one that should necessarily be viewed in critical terms. On balance, a situation in which both public and private institutions run what is essentially a public schooling system seems more beneficial to the vitality of our schools than a situation in which public institutions have a monopoly (2).
The advent of Muslims in Europe
There is a third dimension, next to politics and education, in which those who cherish the fruits of Enlightenment feel less than comfortable, especially in our present day. And it is in this dimension where it can be said that Christians and non-believers throughout Europe share the same or at least a similar embarrassment. It is the echo of a massive embarrassment, especially in view of sacrifices already made to free ourselves from the reign of prejudice and absolutism, which the Western world experienced in the first half of the twentieth century. The terror of fascism and its claims on racial and ideological supremacy are imprinted in our collective memory as a gruesome aberration of history that should never again be allowed to visit us. In its wake we have erected an extensive legal framework to secure our personal freedoms and to safeguard our citizens against every undue discrimination. But now it seems as if we are being slapped in our face because of it. The Muslim world and Muslims living in our own countries are not necessarily impressed by our freedoms and legal safeguards and in fact some feel highly insulted when we use them, as they feel, at their expense.
The case of the Danish Mohammed cartoon haunts all for the massive response it ignited in the Muslim world. Though our freedom of expression is not boundless (especially where it hits other fundamental rights and freedoms such as non-discrimination, and where it leads to inciting hatred against specific groups or persons) we prefer to interpret its scope as wide as possible. This includes our acceptance of expressions that some may find ill mannered, crude or even offensive. We rather tolerate such utterings than make them an object of the law. Still, this is a fine thread and susceptible to social and cultural changes over time (example: the – non – acceptance of sexually explicit images on TV). Also, we employ our sense of humor and sarcasm as an outlet for manifold emotions and opinions and in this respect cartoons (caricatures, comics etc.) fulfill and essential cultural role. We accept the other side of the truth without necessarily losing our respect for our side of it or for any side of that truth. This is the essence of our civilization and of our hard fought freedoms. Thus, the violent threats which ensued from the Danish Mohamed cartoon indeed are an embarrassment for us all, Christians and others, in that they constitute an attack in the heart of what we consider to be a civilized and most of all tolerant world. The worst response, however, is to shy away from it or to make public amends to it, as unfortunately has happened.
If we continue to walk away from the very safeguards against such undue compromises, we seriously risk falling back to the same distrust and authoritarian rule which terrorized our part of world in the past ages. Tragically our fear of terrorist reprisals has further tightened our sense of political correctness v.à.v. the Muslim world but it has also tightened the general belt of our freedoms. More people have come under the scrutiny of justice for their public expressions than at any time in the past decades (3).
Next blog: Part II - An exploration of the future
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1) A recent overview of the religious trends can be found in H. Knippenberg e.a., “The changing religious landscape of Europe”, University of Amsterdam (2005).
2) At the same time increasing concern is expressed in respect of the establishment of Islamic schools both in terms of their quality and in terms of their (alleged) role in propagating societal and political convictions among the younger generation that go against the grain of our fundamental human rights and freedoms.
3) Example: the prosecution of the Dutch right wing politician Geert Wilders for igniting hatred and for expressing himself in discriminatory terms after speaking in derogatory terms about the Islam and Muslims in general.
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