El proselitismo religioso (cristiano o judío) quizá sea impensable en los Estados islámicos. El proselitismo musulmán forma parte de las libertades básicas en Europa y los EE.UU., que reaccionan de distinta manera a la construcción de mezquitas.

Según el Economist, los EE.UU. son globalmente más tolerantes con el proselitismo musulmán.

Según Wall Street Journal, algunos países europeos (España) esgrimen “razones culturales” contra la construcción de nuevas mezquitas; mientras que algunas extremas derechas (La Destra italiana) hablan de “un insulto para la cultura cristiana”.

¿Sobrevivirán las convicciones religiosas al relativismo moral, las antenas parabólicas, los video juegos y la pornografía que se vende en los mercadillos a más alto precio que los antiguos devocionarios..?

Wall Street Journal, 3 septiembre 2007.

Mosque Building Gets a Mixed Reception in the West

Robin Moroney

Campaigns for and against new mosques cities have become defining issues in local politics across the U.S. and Europe, each controversy measuring how well Muslims have integrated into those communities, writes the Economist. The content of the controversies in cities including Boston, Rome, and London varies widely, the Economist says. In the U.S., objections tend to focus on practical considerations like parking and zoning laws. Those objections are usually overcome. A mosque in Chicago successfully challenged a regulation that banned parking for three hours on Friday afternoons, when worshipers would be arriving.

In southern European countries like Spain and Italy, on the other hand, opponents to new mosques are more likely to express their objections to mosques in cultural terms. In Italy, a spokesman for the far-right La Destra party described a mosque under construction a few meters from a Catholic church in Rome as “an insult to Christian culture.” Police halted construction on the mosque in August, saying its sponsors hadn’t sought the necessary permission from the local authority. A new mosque can splinter a city into new factions. In Cologne, Germany, opposition to a proposed mosque that would have 165-foot minarets has come from some Roman Catholic clergy, a local far-right party, and prominent Jewish-German writer Ralph Giordano.

The force of campaigns against mosques has weakened in areas where Muslim immigration has happened for a long time, says Jocelyne Cesari, an associate in the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. The differences can be seen even within a city. Mosques have long been a part the fabric of western Berlin. In the formerly communist eastern part, however, local residents and politicians from a far-right party are protesting the building of the first mosque there.

Economist, Mosques in the West. 30 agosto 2007.

Islam, the American way

[ .. ] But there is a big transatlantic difference in the way such disputes are handled. Although America has plenty of Islam-bashers ready to play on people’s fears, it offers better protection to the mosque builders. In particular, its constitution, legal system and political culture all generally take the side of religious liberty. America’s tradition of freedom is rooted in the First Amendment, and its stipulation that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” Another recourse for embattled minorities of any kind is “Section 1983” of America’s civil-rights legislation, which allows an individual who is deprived of a legal or constitutional right to sue the official responsible. [ .. ]