Eitt af vandamálum múslima víðast hvar í Evrópu er spurningin um talsmann. Það er ekki ljóst hver getur talað fyrir hönd hópsins. Það hefur leitt til þess að fjölmiðlar í leit að fréttum hafa skilgreint fyrir meginþorra fólks hver sé talsmaður og hver ekki. Þetta var eitt af félagslegum víddum Islam sem ég skoðaði í verkefni í Trúarbragðafræðum sem ég tók upp í Pontificium College Josephinum. Þar segi ég um stöðu talsmanna:
Spokesperson
One aspect of the transition of Islam into the Western European context is the lack of organizational structures among especially Sunni Muslims. The lacks of such structures, which in Christianity are called congregations and more often than not hierarchical in their structure, have made it difficult, for example communicating with various governments. (Nielsen 125)
As the structure and hierarchy does not exist, the leadership roles are not fixed but earned. Especially in a new situation were the ascribed roles of the place of origin are not valid or possible to follow. (Nielsen 129-130)
This situation and lack of structures, has at the same time opened up possibilities for groups that have weak status or are illegal in their country of origin, for example Kurds from Turkey, to take an initiative as a prominent Muslim group in the immigration country. In some cases those Islamic groups have been political and even militant and have therefore given the impression that Islam in general is political and militant. In secular societies were separation of politics and religion is celebrated, this has led to a negative attitude towards the Islam faith. (Nielsen 126)
Here the role of media is important, as groups that are ready to come forward and take a strong stand are preferred by the media over individuals or groups that tend to take a more cautious position towards reality. (Nielsen 164) This tendency can be recognized in Denmark where the “Islamisk Trossamfund” with 800 members has been represented as the main Muslim group in the country, even though “Muslimernes Fællesråd” an umbrella organization of various Muslim groups has over 8000 members. (Libak)
Another side to the lack of authority in the Muslim community is that any attempt to speak on behalf of Muslims can be questioned and therefore a dialogue between Muslims and any other group or officials are made very difficult. (Hoffmann 48)
In my readings a came across few converts to Islam, that have taken on the task of being spokesmen for Muslims in their country of origin. Jane I. Smith mentions in her Introduction to the book Muslims in the West, that new converts sometimes play a vital leadership role in Europe, because of their ability to use the language and their understanding of the dominant culture. (Smith 12) Abdul Hadi Hoffmann, a former politician in Germany is one of those converts. Hoffmann mentions another problem with media, when he says in his article Muslims in Germany: The Struggle for integration.
All Muslims are made to be responsible by the media for everything any single Muslim does at any place in the world in the name of Islam. (Hoffmann 52)
One factor that also has impacted Islam is the recognition some governments in Europe has given to cultural or educational centers as an important part of the immigrants’ life and have given those centers financial support in a way religious centers have not received. This has encouraged Muslims to focus on opening cultural centers as a starting point, which has led to a strengthening ethnical and cultural identity of immigrants, at the cost of their Islam identity, at least officially. (Nielsen 128) Due to this strengthening of ethnic/cultural identity, the majority of Islamic groups are ethnic/cultural based. (Nielsen 130)
Some international Muslim organizations try to avoid the ethnic stamp in their work, and it has given them strong presence in the Muslim world. One of them is The Muslim World League, based in Mecca and an important financer for various Muslim projects around the world without specific Ethnics criteria. (Nielsen 141) Another organization that has great influence in Europe is the Brotherhood. Their main focus is to go back to the basics, claiming “anything … which did not have sanction in the life of the community during the time of the Prophet Muhammad was corrupting of Islamic principles” therefore rejecting all ethnic impurity in Islam. (Nielsen 143)
This lack of structures seems to indicate that Islamic religious groups tend to be loosely connected sects. As Muslims become more settled in Europe, we can expect the groups to become more denominational like, focusing more on social consistency than individual transformation. (Smart 1983, 156-157)