Islam and Muslims in Europe (Religion and Society)

The main subject of this book concerns the Muslim immigrants in Europe. It includes the entire history of Islam vis-a-vis Europe since the 7th century, prescribing useful do's and don'ts for current European policymakers. Europeans have developed negative predispositions toward Muslims, sometimes even distinctly perceiving them as foes. The British greatly value the recollection of their glorious erstwhile empire, thus, when it broke-up, they enabled former subjects of the Crown to settle in the UK, as if to build a miniature duplicate of their empire within Britain's borders. The continental European approach toward Muslims, stemming from prejudice and fear, made some immigrants aggressive. The main divergence between European society and Muslim immigrants is due, foremost, to certain collective memories of the native Europeans. Muslims and Arabs within their countries suffer the frustration of remembering their Golden Age when the Europeans were deeply mired in the Middle Ages.