Fundamentalism and the long Muslim lethargy: "Interculturality is conspicuous by its absence"

All strands of religious fundamentalism are dogmas based on rigid common beliefs. Fundamentalist communities are more resistant to change and cling to the fact that the only divine truth is the one that comes from their point of view.

In early 20th century North America, certain sects were called fundamentalist because they rejected Darwin's evolutionary thesis, which they saw as contrary to the literal interpretation of the Bible they adopted.

In Europe, the religious wars between Catholics and Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries had disastrous consequences that encouraged the development of rationalist philosophy in the 17th and 18th centuries, and gradually religion was relegated to the personal conscience and religious traditions were relegated to the background. Religious fundamentalism broke down in Europe, and non-denominational states were established.

In the Muslim world we are currently witnessing a myriad of fundamentalism, however, centuries ago, Muslims have worked what is called the "golden age of Islam" a period between the eighth and thirteenth centuries and there are historians who argue that it lasted until the sixteenth century, d. C, a period in which scientific, cultural and artistic manifestations flourished, and Arab-Islamic civilisation reached its splendour with the contributions of great figures such as Averoch (1126-1198), Al-Khwarismi (780 - 850), Avicenna (980 - 1037), Al-Farabi (872 - 950), Al-Razi (865 - 925), Ibn Arabi (1165 - 1240) and Al-Ghazali (1057 - 1111).

Not to mention women such as Fatima al-Fihri, who founded Al-Qarawiyyīn University in Fez, Morocco in 859 AD and Mariam al-Asturlabi, a 10th century astronomer from Aleppo, Syria.

They were illustrious individuals who brought together a wide range of knowledge: Islamic jurisprudence, engineering, medicine, music, literature, philosophy, astronomy and other sciences, some belonging to the Iberian peninsula of Al-Andalus, such as Averoch, a native of Cordoba, or Ibn Arabi of Murcia. In case fundamentalism means overriding the realisation of reason in the interpretation of religious texts, these great masters have reconciled faith and intellect, using reason and hermeneutics, and had the greatest merit in laying the foundations of the science that endures to this day.

In the 'golden age of Islam' there was a fertile and controversial struggle between religious thought and the philosophical. Philosophy nourished thought, provoked it and pushed it to intellectual maturity. The decline began from the 16th century onwards, philosophy was marginalised, and the rational sciences became tarnished, gradually opening up a long period of Salafist monistic penitential thought, which led to repetition and rumination.

Multiple factors led to the collapse of Islamic civilisation, a priori, what interests us today, for the sake of the new Muslim generations in Europe, is to shake off mental laziness, strengthen the critical spirit and break with the excessive consumption of religious thought stuck in the past.

In the light of this global world and the great progress of the media and social networks, it is urgent to create new cognitive patterns that clarify the thinking of Muslim youth in Europe; women and men who, today more than ever, need to go into the future with a high degree of enlightenment in line with progress taking place in the world.

A review of what is relevant to European Muslims. Obviously, in the last twenty years EU governments have intensified efforts to change models of integration, creating strategies to improve Muslim communities. France, for example, established the French Council of Muslim Worship in 2003, bringing in Muslim ministers with the aim of creating new policies and tackling problems in Muslim suburbs. The German government launched the 'National Conference on Islam' in 2006. The Netherlands passed a law on non-discriminatory municipal services in 2009, which resulted in seven Muslims joining the Dutch Congress of Deputies.

In Spain, since 1992, there is the Islamic Commission of Spain (CIE), which officially represents Muslims before the government, and coordinates two large Muslim associations: the Spanish Federation of Islamic Religious Entities (FEERI) and the Union of Islamic Communities.

However, the question is: to what extent are these representations effective and have a positive influence on the lives of Muslims? We cannot take credit away from them, nor praise their role, for the reason that radical terrorism in the last twenty years hit the EU hard, and on a large scale France and Spain. The Netherlands and others have suffered less.

In France, following the murder of Professor Samuel Paty in October last year (2020) by a young Chechen, the fiercest and most controversial debate on the coexistence of Muslims is taking place. Emmanuel Macron turns to the law to make Islamic institutions adhere to the reform process, and pushes through a law called 'Principles to promote respect for the values of the Republic'. In turn, the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), officially approved the Charter of Principles for French Islam on February 18, 2021, which contains 10 points, most of which emphasise that Islam is not incompatible with the Republic.

The charter did not please the CFCM as a whole; three partner organisations refused to sign it, considering that some of its articles weakened the bonds of trust between Muslims in France and the Muslim nation.

Months later, on March 17, four other organisations that had signed it announced their dissociation and the division became official, with the CFCM remaining three out of nine unions.

This explains that the representation of Muslims in Europe is not always effective, nor will it be as successful as expected, because it does not encompass all the heterogeneous groups that process the Islamic faith, nor does it integrate the diversity to which they belong. As a result, sectarianism, radical Islamist factions and fundamentalism will unfortunately persist.

Conclusion

It is erratic to think that change will emerge from religious institutions, or that laws will be immediately successful. In the European public sphere, there is an urgent need for social and cultural mobility to mark the awakening of European Muslims, and for them to take their own initiatives to develop their understanding of their faith in line with current values.

For this to happen, it is necessary to improve the socio-economic situation, break down ghettos, increase awareness, co-education and, above all, provide spaces guided by interculturality, in which young people could be the protagonists of their own challenge.

Europe, for its part, has tasks to fulfil: the first is to recognise that, in order to establish its current civilisation, it drew on the cognitive arsenal of its Muslim ancestors; European thought benefited from music, art, architecture, philosophy and so on.

The second is to reflect this Islamic legacy in intercultural projects in which Muslims, especially the youth, will have illustrious references from the golden age of Islam, thus connecting them with the culture at its roots and increasing their self-esteem, and interacting positively in society. Without these steps, the horizon for Islam in Europe will remain dark.