Muslims as second-class citizens

The Islam versus the West paradigm has been growing since the Crusades. Although Western intellectuals and a section of academia have discredited the alleged incompatibility between Islamic and Western values, the dominant perception continues to flourish in political and media discourses. Since the events of 9/11, the perception of Islam as the "internal other" and the "external enemy" has lent further weight to the debate that Islam and the West are incompatible. In many countries of the West, Muslims are seen internally as an unwelcome "other" who have strange cultural practices and values, imperilling the core liberal values and aggravating social problems, and externally as enemies posing a security threat. There is no empirical evidence of this being the case, yet from it has emerged a Western conceptualisation of itself as modern, secular, progressive, rational, compassionate, and tolerant" a construction that places Islam and the West on a collision course. In this chapter I take the view that Islam and the West as a dialectical paradigm is a politically expedient and socially false construct and want to debunk the incompatibility thesis by arguing that fundamental values such as justice and compassion are shared by both cultures. Such great values exist, contrary to popular discourse, to enable the preservation of cultural coexistence and difference. The chapter highlights the dominant Western perception of Islam and Muslims as 'other' and explores Muslim immigrant settlement processes in the countries of the West that underpins Muslims' marginalisation. The chapter argues that Western modern liberal democracy, despite its claim to be a tolerant, compassionate, generous, and rational culture, consistently fails to meet the social and religious needs of Muslim immigrants, and by ethnicising and otherising them a differentiated citizenship is produced, leading to many Muslims experiencing poor living conditions and reduced life chances as second-class citizens.