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ABSTRACT
This brief reflection treats the reactive relation between the dispersions of (post-)migration and the integralism of religion in selected cases of European Shiism. It reconsiders reports on Twelver Shiism and Shiite Muslims in Europe in order to discern the main institutional and demographic tendencies in Shiites’ European settlement history in Britain, France and Germany, and to explore such settlement in light of mega-theorizations of European Islam that juxtapose ‘integration’ and ‘separation’. The presentation focuses on Iranians in Britain and argues for the centrality of two complicating variations on the pattern: Integration-Retention (as in the case of blood donation practice) and Separation-Appropriation (as in the case of reformist Islamism in the Ettehādiye Society). Each type stems from heightened Self–Other reflection, triggered by migration and defined more precisely in terms of boundary setting. Such thought is double-scaled for differentiation (d) and reciprocation (r), contrasting jurisprudential treatments ‘there’ (+d/-r) and organizational engagement ‘here’ (-d/+r). Identity formation in European Shiism often involves the rebalancing of these elements.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Email correspondence with the author, 12 December 2016.
2 Interview with Yusuf Al-Khoei (https://static.guim.co.uk/audio/Guardian/Islamophonic/2007/03/21/Islamophonic21032007.mp3; accessed 13 December 2016).
3 By April 2008, the Home Office thought there might be around 2 million Muslims in the UK (Guardian 2008). The 2011 census counts 2,790,800 Muslims in Britain (Muslim Council of Britain Citation2015). The 10–15% estimate for Shiites is given, for instance, in a Pew report (Pew Research Center Citation2009, 41).
4 See http://www.partiantisioniste.com/journal-tv/pas-l-interview/marche-vers-jerusalem-apres-la-premiere-conference-yahia-gouasmi.html (accessed 19 January 2016).
5 Estimates for numbers of Shiite Muslims in France have varied widely between Ruhāni’s broad range of 120,000 to 150,000 (Durand-Souffland Citation1984) and Camus’s (Citation2007, 72) low measured ‘several thousands’ en metropole in addition to several hundred families in La France d’outre-mer.
6 http://www.euro-islam.info/2009/11/14/muslims-must-quit-british-forces-says-iranian-envoy-to-britain/ (accessed 28 October 2016).
7 ‘Da es sich die IGS besonders zur Aufgabe gemacht hat, die Bürger dieses Landes und die Gesellschaft durch soziale, politische und wirtschaftliche Teilhabe zu stärken und weiterzubringen, ist es zugleich ihr Ziel den schiitischen und allen Muslimen diese Teilhabe zu ermöglichen’ (Khalilzadeh Citation2015).
8 https://www.azf.org.uk/single-post/2015/06/21/Interfaith-Iftaar-breaking-the-fast-Fasting-Spiritual-Moral-empowerment (accessed 13 February 2018).
9 http://www.bagh-e-zehra.com/about.html (accessed 13 February 2018).
10 See http://www.aimislam.com/ (accessed 7 June 2016).
11 For an indication of councillors’ ages, see e.g., https://www.world-federation.org/news/president-nominates-councillors-term-2014-2017 (accessed 8 June 2016); http://www2.world-federation.org/Secretariat/Articles/Archive/Update_Ayatullah_Seestani.htm (World Federation Secretariat message of 6 February 2004, referring to ‘our marjaʿ’; accessed 13 December 2016).
12 Its Constitution allows the CoEJ, for instance (5.1.8) ‘[t]o coordinate religious schools within the Member Jamaats and through this to encourage and promote Islamic education.’ Other stipulations conducive to conformity include: ‘5.1.9 To promote and facilitate the performance of Hajj within the Member Jamaats’; and ‘5.1.10 To assist Member Jamaats by coordinating movement and employment of Aalims and assist in harmonising and standardising contracts and conditions of employment of Aalims’ (https://www.coej.org/constitution; accessed 14 February 2018).
13 https://www.world-federation.org/content/yemen-appeal (accessed 31 October 2016). This was only the most recent of several such Federation interventions.
14 After the Bam earthquake of December 2003, ‘plans were initiated for the building of a hawza in the devastated area, particularly to fill the vacuum left by the numerous deaths of learned scholars within the area’ (http://www2.world-federation.org/Misc/History/, accessed 30 October 2015).
15 Interview with former UISA president, 21 February 2008 (for the Manchester centre as ‘part of the marjaʿiyat’); http://www.ic-el.com/about_us.asp (for the Islamic Centre of Manchester, Islamic Centre of Newcastle, Islamic Centre of Birmingham, and Islamic Centre of Glasgow rendered as ‘the other Islamic centres’ on ICEL’s ‘about’ page, accessed 29 May 2017).
16 See European Commission Press Release Database: ‘The President of the European Parliament, the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission meet faith leaders to discuss human dignity.’ 15 May 2007. https://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-07-670_en.htm?locale=en (accessed 20 August 2019).
17 The Husayniyat generally is widely perceived to be ‘Shirāzi’ in orientation and specifically, has been directly guided by the late Grand Āyatollāh Muhammad al-Shirāzi’s son, Āyatollāh Sayyid Murtadhā al-Shirāzi (interview Yāsir al-Habib, 1 May 2009; see http://www.cyconline.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=14324&st =0; accessed 1 May 2009).
18 For a propagandistic statement on Shirāzis in Britain, see http://wilayah.info/en/ayatollah-araki-shirazi-circles-get-support-from-britain-and-saudi/; for a German version: https://archiv.offenkundiges.de/schirazi-gruppen-in-deutschland-und-ihre-agenda/ (accessed 14 February 2018).
19 E.g., http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/04/iran-shia-shirazi-movement-secterian.html; http://english.khamenei.ir/news/4164/No-Shia-is-allowed-to-insult-Sunnis-Ayatollah-Khamenei (accessed 27 September 2016).
20 See the statement by a central committee member of the Ettehādiye (Āfarinesh Citation1385/Citation2006).
21 The UISA flag shows on a photograph presumably taken at Tehran airport that was appended to the cited internal document; further information on its provenance is unavailable.
22 Interview with UISA central committee member and communication director, 26 January 2009.
23 One of the UISA leaders in Germany, Kāzem Dārābi Kāzeruni, was an organizer in the Mykonos affair in Berlin in 1992, in which four Kurdish opposition politicians were murdered (IHRDC Citation2007, 7, 18, 25). As late as 2008, the British Ettehādiye omitted this fact while speaking kindly of him (UISA Citation2008).
24 Interview with former UISA president, 21 February 2008.
25 https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.uisa.ir:80/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=163&Itemid=1 (accessed 29 June 2017); http://www.farsnews.net/printable.php?nn=860906-0727 (accessed 5 November 2008; the page had apparently disappeared from the Internet by 29 June 2017).
26 See interview with Hojjatoleslām Doktor Ezheʾi: https://web.archive.org/web/20090211001217/http://www.uisa.ir/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=81&Itemid=58 (accessed 29 June 2017, first 20 January 2009); interview with former UISA president, 16 January 2008.
27 The most recent newspaper clipping I have found confirming Ezheʾi’s function is dated 26 July 2016 (http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=13940505000189, accessed 29 June 2017).
28 Interview with Kanoon Towhid, central council member and activist, 8 January 2009.
29 https://web.archive.org/web/20130718150123/http://www.roozneveshtha.com/2006/11 (accessed 24 July 2017).
30 Interview former UISA president, 16 January 2008.
31 Interview with UISA central committee member and communication director, 26 January 2009.
32 Interview with Kanoon Towhid, central council member and activist, 8 January 2009.
33 Interview with former UISA president, 16 January 2008.
34 Interview with UISA central committee member and communication director, 26 January 2009.
35 Al-Hakim’s ‘Code’ translates Sistāni’s al-Fiqh li-al-mughtaribīn (Sistāni Citation1999); ‘Lanterns’ is selected from several of Fadlallāh’s works, including al-Hijra wa-al-ightirāb.
36 Thus, Fadlallāh ‘treats fiqh al-aqalliyāt from the perspective of universal Islamic citizenship and seems hesitant to recognize the validity of local expressions of Islamic identity’ (Darwish Citation2009, 103). Although it is noticeable that Sistāni, being particularly focused on believers’ inner fortitude, is less concerned than Fadlallāh with the faith-eroding qualities of the West, this does not imply relativism in the definition of what constitutes faith (128–129, cf. below).
37 ‘We want to raise, in the awareness of Muslims in the West, a realistic cultural movement to understand the background to the arrogant reality in its stance towards our reality. This is because the arena there (among the arrogant) may be more suitable for understanding the foundations of the stance of the arrogant who represent, in international politics, the decision-making powers, so that they [the Muslims] move, through this political observation, towards a deep and realistic study that uncovers all plans, methods and decisions which operate within the arrogant attack on our supreme causes. In this way, we can acquire wider knowledge that enable[s] us to reduce its [the attack’s] dangers through a confrontation that has a counter-plan and clear view’ (Fadlallāh Citation2004, 191).
38 Interview with Sheykh Israfil Demirtekin, 17 October 2008.
39 ‘Know that people are of two types: they are either your brothers in religion or your equals in creation.’
40 Email correspondence with IUS National Community Officer Dr Marwan Al-Dawoud, 23 February 2008.
41 See http://www.ius.org.uk/giveblood/ (accessed 14 February 2008).
42 NHS National Blood Service, News Release, 28 January 2008.
43 https://web.archive.org/web/20070222151637if_/http://www.ius.org.uk:80/giveblood/about.html (accessed 20 October 2017).
44 Email correspondence with IUS National Community Officer Dr. Marwan Al-Dawoud, 23 February 2008.
45 In his contribution to a London conference organized at the Islamic Centre of England by its affiliated Sun Cultural Foundation in collaboration with AhlulBayt Islamic Mission on 6 June 2009 (attended by the present author), for example, Siddiqui ventured that, whereas the West continued to misapprehend Islam and mistreat Muslims, Khomeini had understood the West very well, and like him, Muslims needed to reject Western civilization, which was a system that stood opposed to its core values.