ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the imagination of togetherness as a social fact and the cultural clashes and policies derived from European-Middle Eastern integration as a real experience for millions of Europeans, immigrants and old Europeans alike. The Cartoon Crisis is an example of such a cultural clash. The development of modern democracy is not automatically linked to the evolution of liberal societies. Regarding modern citizenship democracy provides the cultural politics not provided by liberalism. Immigration and integration policies naturally move to the centre of cultural politics because they build up the most obvious pressure on the cultural homogeneity that the people represent. In a sense the prevalent liberal economic policies define the problems caused by immigration and particularly by the integration of Middle Eastern Muslims in European society as cultural politics. In the last 10-15 years the cultural clashes within Europe between Muslim immigrants, mainly from the Middle East, and the older European populations have increased significantly.
