The Return Of The Religious

Abstract

Recents discussions of expansion in the European Union and the possibility of envisioning a Muslim country in it has exacerbated the deep-seated anxiety about Islam among the liberal and extreme right in Europe. This paper suggests that there are recurring elements in the discourse of European cultural identity and one of these elements is the representation of Islam in its alterity to European identity and civilization. Questioning the thesis of a radical break with the Christian past, this paper questions whether the European cultural identity which is being formed today signifies a break with a religious form of identification. The liberal and extreme right opposes Turkish membership on the grounds that the differences between ‘European values’ and ‘European culture and lifestyle’ and Turkey's culture are what makes the latter essentially and fundamentally external to the essence of Europe. Tracing the remnants of Christian discourse in the contemporary fashioning of European identity, this paper discusses how Christianity, with its secularized versions, which are now displaced to culture and lifestyle, still holds a privileged position as a unifying theme in Europe. It suggests that one of the tests that awaits Europe is whether it will be capable of articulating a new but democratic identity for Europe, one that is responsive to the differences of the other or whether it wants to continue to be European by way of its old methods of exclusion.

Keywords:

• Europe
• Islam
• Orientalism
• cultural difference
• European identity
• Turkey

Notes

1. I must make it clear right at the beginning that this essay does not pretend to offer a sociological empirical/case study of the discourses about the European Union or European identity that are in currency today. The positivist understanding of theory/empirical case opposition does not shape the epistemological background of the essay. Hence, the concern is not to empirically demonstrate or present empirical evidence to the specific theoretical arguments that are developed here. Rather, this essay aspires to build up a conceptual framework so as to be able to understand the nature and specificity of the ingredients that participate in the construction of European identity and what this identity has to do with the religious/cultural difference.

2. It is important to keep in mind Bo Strath's suggestion that the idea of a united Europe is not the same idea as the idea of European identity (2000, 18). However, what is more interesting to note and challenging is to reveal that the discourse on European unity goes hand in hand with the spoken and sometimes unspoken assumptions of what European identity was, is and/or should be.

3. There may be many arguments concerning Turkey's candidacy that focus on either human rights standards or the economic level of the country. First of all, since the focus of this essay is not to analyse how and in what ways Turkey's candidacy for the European Union is debated I will not engage in a discussion of these debates. Secondly, the lack of explicit reference to Christianity in the preamble to the constitutional treaty acts as a confirmation of one of the central arguments of this essay as I suggest that in today's discussion of European identity religion, or more importantly religious difference, is displaced by issues of cultural difference and thus religion participates in the cultural and political life in such a way that it is not recognisable as religion.

4. Turkey and Bosnia Herzegovina are probably the two countries which are closest to be admitted to membership of the European Union. The relative importance of Turkey is due to the geopolitical position it has historically had and currently holds, which cannot be compared with the geopolitical significance Bosnia, despite the fact that both have the status of a ‘Muslim country’.

5. I dwell on Giscard d'Estaing's discourse particularly because his statements are highly symptomatic and the most visibly and poignantly articulated example of the position this essay tries to delineate. My concern in this essay is not to offer an empirical/case study of the European public sphere in relation to the discussions about the European Union, European identity or the objections raised against the candidacy of certain countries. This essay tries to articulate a conceptual point about European identity in relation to its excluded religious others and I use Giscard d'Estaing's speech as an illustration of this theoretical point.

6. Such spatial concerns regarding the geographical limits of Europe cannot be thought independently of the temporal concerns as far as the question of shared cultural values and lifestyles are concerned.

7. One can certainly try to discern differences between the positions of Giscard d'Estaing and the French National Front with respect to Islam. However, this is outside the concerns of this essay.

8. Note the prevalent metaphor of the veiled/masked Oriental operating here. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following definition of a trojan horse: ‘a person, device, etc. insinuated to bring about an enemy's downfall; a person or thing that undermines from within’. The latter definition is analogous to the widespread Orientalist representation of Orientals, who are imagined to be hiding behind masks, conducting secret and dangerous affairs behind veils. For a detailed elaboration of these tropes see my Colonial fantasies: towards a feminist reading of Orientalism (Yegenoglu 1998).

9. Derrida, in The other heading, made reference to the problematic nature of the use of the official word ‘reunion’ by alluding to the French President François Mitterand's speech where he said that Europe ‘is returning in its history and its geography like one who is returning home’ (Derrida 1992, 8). For Derrida the characterization of Europe's homecoming or reunion is an example of the exemplarist logic. Derrida also cited other French government texts in which an exemplary role has been attributed to France in today's Europe.