Daily Times - Don’t Muslims like the opera in Europe? — by Farish A Noor

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Don’t Muslims like the opera in Europe? — by Farish A Noor

Muslims have much to contribute to Europe. Indeed, they already have. This contribution comes in all forms, from the material and economic to the cultural and discursive. Yet as a minority they need to be made secure and to feel that their contribution is worthy of them and valued by others. Today there is much heated debate over whether the Muslims of Europe can or cannot be part of mainstream European culture. Not surprisingly, such questions are often asked by liberal intellectuals who seem oddly blind to their own class and social status and the subject-positions they occupy in the heart of mainstream European society. Well-paid and fully tenured professors of social science ask questions like “Why do European Muslims not take part in social life? Why are they absent from cultural events? Why do they not visit art galleries or the opera?”

These are loaded questions and speak volumes about the cultural solipsism of those raising them. If European Muslims rarely go to the opera, it is not because they harbour a disdain for Wagner for reasons of political correctness; it is simply because they cannot afford to go there in the first place. And while we digest this simple fact, let us also take into account the fact that an overwhelming majority of ordinary non-Muslim Europeans too cannot afford to go to the opera, visit art galleries and the like.

For a European Islam to develop and come to terms with its environs, Europeans must come to terms with the fact that they now live in a globalising world. It is multicultural and diverse. Muslims have much to contribute to Europe. Indeed they already have. This contribution comes in all forms, from the material and economic to the cultural and discursive. Yet as a minority they need to be made secure and to feel that their contribution is worthy of them and valued by others. In this context the role of history books, education and popular culture is important. The same demands need to be met for other minorities as well.