ABSTRACT
Whenwriting this article for this special issue on religious citizenship, Iwas far fromanticipating the terrorist attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on January 7, 2015, that shook Western democracies, and the emotions it would stir across the globe. Beyond the horrific tragedy itself and its emotional spiral, what these attacks have now brought to the forefront of the political debate in Europe (and to some extent in other Western democracies) is an important issue that has been dormant for the last two decades, and that has been overshadowed by the more pressing European economic crisis – that is, the place of Islam within a changing social, cultural, religious and demographic landscape in Europe. With globalization and the flow of migration from Muslim-majority countries, today’s Europe is a much more multicultural, plural and culturally diverse society than when the founding fathers of the European Community – Konrad Adenauer, Joseph Bech, Johan Willem Beyen, Winston Churchill, Alcide De Gasperi, Walter Hallstein, Sicco Mansholt, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, Paul-Henri Spaak and Altiero Spinelli – gathered together to create a European economic market built on a community of European states, resting on the idea of a commonality underpinned by secularism. This commonality was built on the core values of secular democracy and freedom, and shared JudeoChristian roots. Born out of the Second World War, the European project was meant to overcome and subvert selfish nationalisms. It successfully allowed the peaceful flourishing of democratic secular societies and the expression of pluralities. But with the expression of pluralities come new identities that challenge this commonality and the secularism that underpins it.
