ABSTRACT
In a pre-modern sense, i.e. in an understanding of world politics prior to the
creation of the Westphalian system1 of sovereign states, the Mediterranean2
was the center of world history. At present, the combination of an expand-
ing European Union in the North and continuing surge of political Islam in
the South has been contributing to making this region pivotal for con-
temporary international politics. Historians are familiar with the civiliza-
tional centrality of the Mediterranean that predates the rise of Islam in the past and of Islamism at present: The Roman Empire viewed the Medi-
terranean as mare nostrum/our sea. This understanding was challenged
when the foundation of Islam took place not only as a religion, but also as
a competing civilization. The new monotheist message of the Prophet
Mohammed3 (610-32) changed the Mediterranean. The ensuing rise of an
Islamic empire based on Islamic futuhat-expansion4 aimed at mapping the
globe into dar al-Islam and transferred the Mediterranean into an Islamic
sphere. This Islamic model of globalization was the first of this kind in world history.5 Following the conquests in the Mediterranean, Arab-
Muslims invaded Europe from the south-west (Spain) in a first wave and,
centuries later, in a second wave from the south-east (the Balkans). The
Turk-Muslims were able to accomplish what Arabs failed to do: to conquer
Constantinople in 1453 and to bring Byzantium to an end. Is this a
model for the present? Some believe they see Islamic civilization threatening
to engulf Europe by Islamizing it. The announced end of history has proven
to be a fallacy, given the lie by a return of history. This book asks whether massive Islamic migration to Europe is creating a third wave related to the
history just outlined, or whether Europe will be able to absorb Muslim
immigrants by integrating them as citizens. Could Islam become Eur-
opean, as a Euro-Islam? In the spirit outlined in the preface, I have been
writing this book as a scholar who combines a Muslim background of
immigration with the will to embrace the idea of Europe, and who thus
rebukes the rhetoric of a clash of civilizations. To be sure, European realities
of other-ing Muslims and marginalizing them are not in line with the idea of Europe. Both Europeans and Muslims need to change, to avert an
unfolding of the announced clash of civilizations in a self-fulfilled prophecy.
The present book is a contribution to this needed change on both sides.
