The Right to be Different

For many in the West, the cultures of migrants from Islamic countries became a source of discomfort and fear after the events of 9/11, which were followed by a number of attacks in Madrid, London and elsewhere. This sense of apprehension had a significantly negative impact on how many people in Western countries view Islam and Muslims, despite the fact that one of the major impacts of globalization has been the emergence of new forms of identities within nation states. To borrow a phrase from Stuart Hall, ‘modern nations are all cultural hybrids’. ¹ Another scholar, Robert Young, believes that ‘heterogeneity, cultural interchange and diversity have now become the self-conscious identity of modern society’. ² This may still be a fair assessment of a globalized society, yet in the years following the events of 9/11, the growing fear of migrants from Islamic countries has led to an urgent appeal for the assimilation of their culture into that of the dominant host society. This has resulted in a widening gap between migrants (even those born in the country adopted by their parents) and the rest of society. This new culture promises to be the source of many challenges in the coming years. The UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) report of 2004 cites the growing gap combined with the lack of cultural recognition of migrants as one of the major challenges and dangers that new multicultural societies face. ³