Critically assess the proposition that Muslims have become the main Essay

Critically assess the proposition that Muslims have become the main focus of authorised efforts to exclude Others from the s - Essay Example5 Muslim communities of the 20th/21st centuries based on three typologies 6 Multiculturalism... 6 Differential exclusion / guest worker system 7 Assimilation.. 8 Terrorism as usually associated with Muslim people 8 Social exclusion. 10 Conclusion. 13 Introduction Islam is the religion for more than 2 billion people on the earth. Only in westerly Europe there are about 10 million Muslims, who are considered to be the largest religious minority in the region and the third largest religion overall growing much express than traditionally dominant Catholic and Protestant religions. As a result, Islam became a significant religious and social force in the Western European countries, including France, Germany, join Kingdom, and others. In Great Britain, for example, Muslims are the second largest faith group after Christians. More than half of th em were born in the United Kingdom having such ethnic backgrounds as Turkish, Arab, Indian, Asian, Kurdish, and Pakistani. Muslims coming to live in France are usually from francophone countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco (Castles and Miller, 2003). Finally, Germany has many Muslims with Turkish and Kurdish origin. Since the number of Muslims living in Western Europe and the United States continue to grow and more and more people become converted into Islam religion, anti-Muslim sentiments and movements started growing across Europe when Muslims have become the main focus of official efforts to exclude them as others from the states of Europe. The main reason for such actions is the fear of a Muslim invasion when European national identities can be threatened by the ongoing processes of European integration and immigration from the developing countries (Ferrera, 2005). While in the past immigration rules were less(prenominal) restricted for certain countries, they became tougher late due to the increased number of immigrants living on the unemployment compensation from the government, which raises concerns and complaints from the citizens who work hard and pay taxes. Even if immigrants find a job, the employers pay much less salaries and wages for them than for national citizens. So, it shifts preferences for employment toward immigrants. In such a way, socially excluded national citizens compete with socially excluded ethnic minorities or immigrant others for limited national resources of eudaimonia (Castles and Miller, 2003). Such current situation in the Western European countries can be associated with a social regression or a social crisis in addition to a growing political and cultural crisis based on the established national identities. In such a way, recently there is a strong tendency to exclude Muslim immigrant others out of the European countries to make it nationally pure again. Syncretism Syncretism, which means combining, is t he attempt to reconcile contrary