Get ready for the diverse future or get out of the way. Arnie Cooper of Miller-McCune talks to Reza Aslan:
M-M: So what do you say to those who perceive a real clash between the cultural values of the Netherlands, for example, which is otherwise very tolerant, and those of Muslims?
RA: They said the exact same thing about Jews before they started slaughtering them. The last time we saw that kind of ultra-nationalist rhetoric and ideology that we see now sweeping through Europe, it was against the Jews. Back then, how did you define yourself as European? You do so in opposition to the Jew. Now you’re hearing the exact same conversations and rhetoric being directed toward Europe’s Muslim population.
That’s not to say we can expect another holocaust. Of course not; we live in a different society now. But this rhetoric is no different than what we’ve heard before, and it needs to be called out.
M-M: To play devil’s advocate, what about the treatment of women?
RA: What about it? If you’re somehow arguing that Islam has a different conception of women in society than Europe does, it’s just wrong. Comparing the Netherlands to Saudi Arabia, OK, that’s fine, but there are as many female Muslim heads of state as there are European heads of state. It’s utter nonsense; and the whole conception that Islam doesn’t belong in Europe; that it’s by definition un-European and violates European values and identities, are statements of people who are trying to figure out for themselves what it means to be European. And they don’t know.
I did my dissertation on this very subject. Islam has become the revealer of European identity, precisely the way that Judaism was the revealer of European nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries. What did it mean to be French or German or Dutch at a time when those ideas were just starting to become nationally defined? It meant not being a Jew. Simple. And that’s precisely what’s happening now. What did it mean to be French, German or Dutch in the face of a European Union that tells you that you must be simultaneously Dutch and European, etc.? How do you define Britishness in the 21st century? What does it mean to actually talk about French values? The answer is pretty simple. It means not being Muslim.
So the rhetoric has no basis in any kind of fact or rational argument. It’s merely a visceral reaction to the changing cultural and ethnic landscape of Europe. The Dutch actually believe if they could just get rid of the Muslims or just stop Muslim immigration, and then the Netherlands will go back to the whiteness that used to characterize it. And that’s impossible. Those days are over and they will never, ever return. But that’s the mantra of these ultra-nationalists; that it used to be better and we should go back to the way that it was..
[E]very single thing that is being said about America’s Muslim community was said about America’s Jewish community in the 20th century and about America’s Catholic community in the 19th century. We passed laws in this country denying Catholics of their rights because people believed that they were un-American. They couldn’t possibly have loyalty to both the pope and the president at the same time.
We passed laws in this country limiting how many Jews could come because these political, business and religious leaders like Louis McFadden, Henry Ford and Father Coughlin were saying that the Jews were immersed in a conspiracy to take over the country. We look back at that kind of rhetoric and those individuals with shame and laughter. And that’s exactly how we’re going to look at the Newt Gingriches and the Robert Spencers of the world 10 or 20 years from now.
