Muslims in Western Societies

Abstract

“There is no ‘Islam’ and there is no ‘West’,” boldly proclaimed the programof the Trudeau Foundation’s conference held in Vancouver, BC, Canada on16-18 November 2006. Rather, the premise was that there are numerousIslams (religious, political, and geographical) and many Wests. Given thiscontext, some 160 scholars, activists, and policymakers came together underthe more general heading of “Muslims in Western Societies” to discuss,debate, and make sense of the complex interactions among and manifestationsof these many Islams and many Wests.The event was organized around five themes: “Religious Belief, Secularism,and the State”; “Immigrant Societies, Cultural Memory, and CulturalChange”; “The Multicultural Challenge”; “Muslim Women inWestern Societies”; and “Muslims, Political Violence, and the SecurityEstablishment.” Plenary sessions were held on each theme. In addition,because it was a working conference, attendees participated in discussiongroups organized around these same themes and presented summaryaccounts of their two-day deliberations in a closing plenary.Perhaps because of the Canadian setting, multiculturalism was one ofthe concepts that received much attention and served as a touchstone duringmany of the weekend’s discussions. During the panel on the challenge ofmulticulturalism, Will Kymlicka (Queen’s University) outlined the historyof multiculturalism in Canada and argued that in order to accommodate thecurrent concerns of Muslims and other religious minorities, Canada mustupdate its multiculturalism policy. In the early 1970s, Canada officiallybecame “multicultural” at the behest of Ukrainian Canadians who wanted toprotect their language and culture within the framework of official biculturalismand bilingualism policies. In the 1980s, the logic of anti-racismentered multicultural debates, and now, Kymlicka insisted, religion hasarisen as a cultural element in need of protection. He urged that we update,rather than abandon, Canada’s multicultural policy.In “Muslims, Political Violence, and the Security Establishment” (and inthe working group on the same topic, in which I participated), Rex Brynen ...