Negociating Multi-identities Beyond Cultural Conflicts

Europe, being one of the most well developed regions in the world, is attracting increasing number of immigrants from all over the world. Among the immigrants, one unique group that catches attention is the Muslim population. Arriving at the European countries during the middle of the 19th century, they mainly served as foreign laborers in the post-war reconstruction of Europe. Due to various reasons, these supposed temporary laborers remained largely in the host nations, triggering a new wave of immigration for the family reunification. Permanent Muslim communities and settlements are gradually formed in the past few decades. With the confrontations and conflicts between the Muslim community and the European mainstream society become sharper, and the clash between the Islamic world and the modern Western society intensifies, the Muslim issues are nowadays attracting increasing concern from every parts of the society. This theses aims to analyze the historic and present living state of the Muslim immigrants in Europe, and to investigate into their troubles and perplexities in the cultural and spiritual aspects by adopting the theory of "diasopa" in the cultural criticism. There are four chapters in the theses. Chapter One scrutinizes the definition of the term "diaspora" and justifies its application to the Muslim's case. Chapter Two traces back the entangled history between the Islamic world and the West. Chapter Three puts emphasis on the examination of the actual living state of the Muslim population in Europe, including the policies of the EU nation-states' governments and the attitude of the grassroots citizens toward this group. Focusing especially on the dilemmas and questions facing the Muslim population in the spiritual level, in order to probe...