European Muslim Audiences and the Negotiation of Belonging

Abstract

European Muslim consumption practices, including the profound sense of alienation from mainstream media and turn towards alternative, more Muslim media have been interpreted as their exit from Europe's media and cultural institutions. However, analysis of these practices indicates that European Muslims have developed critical attitudes towards and distances from European mainstream media along with skills that enable them actively to deconstruct and reconstruct mainstream as well as ‘Muslim’ media content. It is thus possible both to ‘exit’ and to develop a ‘voice’ that attempts to transform mainstream broadcasting.

Keywords:

• multiculturalism
• European Muslims
• audiences
• belonging
• Islamophobia
• exclusion
• diversity

Notes

¹ Şimşek Çağlar (2002), Tsagarousianou (2007), and Vertovec (2004) have documented this transnational orientation in terms of the multiple links that migrants retain with ‘home’ or ‘elsewhere’ in terms of investment or education strategies, their inclusion into transnational mediascapes, their consumption practices, while stressing their local rootedness.

² There is a vast and diverse debate on this issue. On 28 June 2006 the then UK Communities Secretary, Ruth Kelly, summarized the often rehearsed key argument against multiculturalism pointing out that in her opinion ‘we have moved from a period of uniform consensus on the value of multiculturalism, to one where we can encourage that debate by questioning whether it is encouraging separateness’ (Daily Mail, 13 August 2012). Interestingly, the ‘moment of truth’ for exponents of this argument, the point at which such a verdict became possible was predominantly linked with the perceived resistance of Europe's Muslims to integration or assimilation, depending on one's point of view. Reflecting this mood, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel in a speech to her party's youth wing, referring to the country's Turkish and Arab immigrants, argued that Germany's ‘multicultural approach had utterly failed’ as too little had been required of immigrants in the past (Guardian, 17 October 2010). Similar statements have been made by France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and a host of other European politicians and public figures.

³ This research was conducted between 2005 and 2008. Informants were chosen on the basis of their countries of origin, surnames or membership in ethnic, religious or cultural associations and their own assertion that they are practising Muslims, or that Islam plays a role in their cultures, communities or their own identities. Of the sample the majority comprised residents or citizens of Belgium (90), France (130), Germany (115), Netherlands (90), UK (170) while others resided in Italy (20), Spain (15), Denmark (22), Norway (16), Sweden (22), and Austria (25). Of the interviewees, 390 were male and 325 female.

⁴ Sixty-three per cent of British, 69 per cent of French and Belgian, 67 per cent of Dutch and 64 per cent of German Muslims.

⁵ For an extensive discussion of issues relating to the concepts of aporia and the subaltern see Spivak (1988).

⁶ The interviewee refers to Marc Dutroux, a Belgian serial killer and child molester, convicted of having kidnapped, tortured and sexually abused six girls during 1995 to 1996, ranging in age from 8 to 19, four of whom he murdered. He was arrested in 1996, four years after the disappearance of his victims had begun, and has been in prison ever since, with the exception of reportedly escaping for a brief amount of time in April 1998. Dutroux's widely publicized trial took place in 2004 and prompted widespread criticism of the country's political elite and judicial system.

⁷ The Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons controversy began after twelve cartoons, most of which depicted the Muslim prophet Mohammed, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005. The newspaper considered their publication to be an attempt to contribute to the debate regarding criticism of Islam and self-censorship. The publication was deemed offensive by many Muslims worldwide as it was seen to be ridiculing the Prophet Mohammed and prompted protests and heated debates. For an excellent analysis of the broader and complex issues surrounding the cartoons, controversy see Modood and Hansen (2006).

⁸ Such debates led in the early 1990s Charles Pasqua, the then French Interior Minister, to embark on a campaign to ban satellite dishes in areas of high concentration of immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East as turning to other, non-French broadcasters was alleged to impede integration. Similarly, the Brussels municipal administration and a number of French local authorities engage in such debates. See also Tsagarousianou (2007, pp. 98–100).