The signs in the Heavens! 34

[resurrected]

The European Muslims
There were not many Muslim states within Europe, except Turkey and Albania with overwhelmingly Muslim populations and yet Europe does have huge Muslim populations living there. Excluding Turkey more than 38 million Muslims live in almost every east and west European country though there presence is more visible in all big countries like Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Many European cities like Birmingham, London, Brussels, Copenhagen, Paris, Vienna etc. home Muslims, where they form a substantial portion of the populations. These Muslims lived side by side other religions and struggled hard to keep their religious identity. To safeguard their faith in societies that were secular in nature but with overwhelming Christian populations, wasn’t an easy task. What had brought these Muslims to the societies that were not to so compatible wasn’t any mystery. Most of these Muslims had come to Europe in search of jobs or to better their economic conditions, without having the prior knowledge about the living conditions or social difficulties awaiting them in their new home lands. Most of these Muslims came from the former colonies and yet had but little insight regarding future. They simply didn’t know that their lives in the new homelands weren’t going to change drastically, at least not for the immigrants belonging to the first generation. Even their children, who would get born in these countries, were to find some better living conditions. Some immigrants did struggle and survived economically, while there were others that failed and sunk down to the bottom of the society. He didn’t want to discuss the subject in somewhat detail, and for that reason left the stories of success or complete fiasco aside.
He just wanted to discuss these people from some future perspective and for that reason it wasn’t required to go in details, he made clear. The mentioning of socio-economic misery was just to make me realize the prevalent conditions and the consequences of such. According to him the bad conditions had given rise to criminality among the young Muslim generations that revolted against the unfair system that discriminated them. These youngsters found themselves without any future perspectives and there was no back home either waiting for them. So there were different reactions to the bad conditions, social misery and alien atmosphere threatened them, forcing them to seek isolation in their own communities. They also sought refuge in their own traditions and religious shelter. The more they felt threatened the deeper they went in their shields and such conditions created isolated ghettos in almost all major European cities. Muslims weren’t the Jews, they had never been exposed to such conditions before and for that reason lacked the strategies of survival. They were not compatible to the western way of living, they were not used to finding and learning the art of adaptability, so regardless of if they succeeded or failed in their socio-economical endeavor, they were to worry about the future of their coming generations.
Thousands of years ago God had dispersed the Jews to four corners of the earth, in twentieth century it was the turn of the Muslims, he joked but seemed to be right. The only difference was that the Jews didn’t have any say in the matter, while Muslims did it with their own free will and even did it happily. The Muslim populations had either been unconscious of the dangers involved or had closed their eyes for some expected material benefits. Theoretically there were still possibilities for these Muslims to return to their roots if they felt insecure regarding their future but practically it was impossible. Decades had gone since they had moved to these new countries of domiciles, where they had conceived children, had been enrooted and gotten used to the surroundings. But the greatest difficulty lied in their former homelands, where everything had changed and where they couldn’t get adjusted to anymore.
“Why can’t they do that?” I wondered.
“There are many reasons but mainly it’s due to difficulty of moving down the ladder. Their children don’t see the former countries as their homelands as well; they are used to living differently and refuse to walk retrograde.”
“What is it better to live in socio-economic misery than to move back to ones roots?” I asked.
“We won’t understand their difficult conditions. Even if many of them have difficult conditions over there, they live far better than we can offer them over here. They have their human rights, their dignity and liberties they can never ever dream of in our Muslim societies and that must be scaring.”