by Deirdre Dlugoleski:
Europe today presents a strange landscape – one sees countless church spires breaking the skyline, but, in many European countries, less than a quarter of the population regularly attends service. Over the last century especially, Europe has become increasingly secular, with stronger legal divisions between the church and state.
The increasing presence of Muslim communities in Europe, however, calls this separation into question. Strategies for dialogue and engagement vary between two types of states: those that maintain strict secularism, and those that allow for religious representation at a state level, while still separate from the government. For strongly secular countries like Portugal, Spain and France, the government must tread a careful line between upholding separation of church and state institutions, and continuing dialogue with its religious groups. France, for example, holds a policy of laïcité, but also has established representative organizations for Protestants and Jews, and now Muslims (with the Conseil François du Culte Musulman in 2003). Other than that, however, France has remained stubbornly secular, even in the face of controversy over burqas and headscarves. Most French Muslims consider themselves French, part of society, and are more concerned with unemployment than religious representation. This may be because none of France’s religious groups are part of the political scene. French Muslims do not have to watch their Protestant counterparts receive state benefits routinely denied to their own communities.
This is not the case for states that already have specific structures for interaction in place. Germany, for example, has granted religious communities the status of Körperschaften des öffentlichen Rechts, or “corporations under public law” since 1919. While this status remains poorly defined and often bitterly debated between liberal and conservative parties, it does, however, allow for church taxes (paid to the state), and a separate civil service. It also guarantees the privilege of religious education – a hotly contested point among Germany’s Muslim community, which currently has no corporate status. Although this is technically not required for a community to give religious instruction in schools, Germany’s Muslims must first meet the requirements of Article 7 III of the German constitution – that is, they must have an organization to speak for them to the government. Germany is home to both Sunni and Alevi communities; creating this spokesman entity may be easier said than done. For Muslims to fully participate in the German system, the government must first recognize that, just as one cannot elect a single spokesperson for all Christians, neither can one simply group all Muslims together into one representative organization.
It is unclear how states that allow for a religious component in their political life will change their institutions and laws to accommodate fairly for different communities’ needs. This much, though, is certain: states like Germany must clearly redefine their policies towards religious groups in such a way that they apply equally to all communities. Europe’s Muslim communities must have a chance to participate in their states while preserving their culture and beliefs – and for that to happen, Europe’s political institutions must again decide and specify how religion will interact with the state.