"Islam in Europe"
Muslims have by now made their presence felt in Europe’s capitals. A different culture is growing alongside the existent Europeans. Outwards this is made apparent with headscarves and mosques. It is about a different way of social life, of acting daily: So all the common life, the social life is different from the European.
The second generation of female Muslim immigrants is often going back to conspicuously practicing Islam and wearing the veil, which were rejected by many of their mothers when they first settled in the West.
A growing number of Europe’s Muslims feel they are victims of explicit or implicit Islamophobia and turn to religious principles to construct meaningful identities.
The first object of my inquiring gaze was the Muslims from Greece, the inhabitants of the region of Thrace, in the 1990’s. My quest has never since ceased. Through wars and peace, bitterness and joy, I travelled and travel though Islam and Islams, Greece and the Balkans, Western Europe and the East, to understand and “catch” their lives in Europe.
Islam means subordinate to the Most High, the Merciful (Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim). Otherwise they have the same things in their life. Love, education, job, family, health, faith, celebrations, death.
The only thing different is the islamistic fondamentalism. But other fanaticism and other faith and the way it spreads. Other islamists terrorists and other practicing devout Muslims. But the cause is found in countries of origin in the Arab world.
We are all different precisely and thanks to our differences, we can have the opportunity to understand each other. I do not judge, praise or condemn. But it is not enough to be tolerant and accept differences. We should recognize the existence of another truth, other than the one we know. Those others might see truth in a different way. To have a vision that blends cultures. To coordinate and coexist.
Fanny Sarri