The events of 9/11 and the torrent of terrorist attacks in European countries have seen an expanding move away from notions of multiculturalism and towards calls for cohesion and integration. Drawing on the theoretical work of Ramadan, Abu Zayd, Benhabib, and Habermas, I intend to differentiate between the Islam of violence and intolerance, and the Islam of peaceful choice - which can indeed co-exist within any multicultural context by virtue of its own teachings. I follow this with a specific exploration of Muslim women, in which I wish to show how plurality of interpretation within Islamic education actually makes a valuable contribution to conceptions of multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism and democratic citizenship. The decision to specifically look at Muslim women is in response to the increasing marginalisation and targeting of Muslim women as evident in l’affaire la voile (the veil affair) in France, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Turkey, and other European countries – leading to a collision between multiculturalism, on the one hand, and conceptions of identity, belonging and citizenship, on the other.

While norms constituted within and through religious, cultural or ethnic beliefs might be the primary source of definition for certain people, they do not preclude people from drawing from their plurality of being. As such, no individual, at least not in contemporary societies, is signified and shaped by a singular way of being. When Europe, therefore, seeks to expunge itself of its multicultural baggage, it is on the one hand, seeking to instill a particular orientation of integrationism, which negates the moral constituency of what it means to embody an irreducible difference of being (Benhabib, 2011). On the other, it is merely persisting with a thirteen century old narrative – which is how long Islam has been in Europe, or how long Europe has been in Islam.

For the purposes of this research paper, I will be exploring two related concerns. Firstly, I want to divorce the Islam tarnished by teachings of intolerance and associations of incitements of violence from the Islam of legitimate access to individual interpretation and choice. It is my contention, that because it is the tarnished Islam to which Europe is finding offence, it is indeed the tarnished Islam, which needs to be re-invoked as a religion based on what Ramadan (2004: 80) refers to as a ‘constant dialectical and dynamic movement between the sources and the environment, whose aim is to find a way of living harmoniously’. Ultimately, the responsibility of the restoration of Islam as a peaceful religion resides within its own communities, whether located in Europe, or elsewhere. Secondly, by turning to the multiplicity of interpretations within Islam itself, I will discuss how Muslim women in particular, are able to draw from the plurality of Islam so as to adapt to the dynamic societies, constituted by multiculturalism, and hence make a contribution to conceptions of cosmpolitanism and democratic citizenship.

Abu Zayd, N. (2004) Rethinking the Qur’an: towards a humanistic hermeneutics. (Humanistics University Press). Benhabib, S. (1992) Situating the self: gender, community and postmodernism in contemporary ethics (London: Polity Press). Benhabib, S. (2011) Dignity in adversity: Human rights in troubled times (Cambridge: Polity Press). Gutmann, A. (2003) Identity in democracy. (Princeton: Princeton University Press). Habermas, J. (2008) Notes on a post-secular society. www.signandsight.com. Accessed on 23rd July 2012. Haddad, Y. Y. & Esposito, J.L. (1998) (eds.): Islam, gender, and social change. (New York: Oxford University Press). Mernissi, F. (1995) Women and Islam: an historical and theological enquiry (UK: Blackwell Publishers). Nussbaum, M.C. (2002) Education for citizenship. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 5(1):1–25. Ramadan, T. (2004) Western Muslims and the future of Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Sahin, B. (2006)Is Islam an obstacle to democratization in the Muslim world? The debate of the compatibility of Islam and democracy revisited. Bilig, 37:189–206. Ahmet Yesevi University Board of Trustees. Smeyers, P. & Waghid, Y. (2010) Cosmopolitanism in relation to the self and the other: from Michael Foucault to Stanley Cavell. Educational Theory, 60:4. Board of Trustees, University of Illinois. Stowasser, B. (1994) Women in the Qur’an, traditions and interpretations (New York: Oxford University Press). Taylor, C. (1994) Multiculturalism: examining the politics of recognition. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press). Waghid, Y. (2011) Conceptions of Islamic education: pedagogical framings. (New York: Peter Lang Publishing). Young, I.M. (1997) Intersection voices: dilemmas of gender, political philosophy, and policy. (Princeton: Princeton University Press).