The increased labeling of diverse immigrant communities of Muslim background in Europe as having a common culture since they share a common religion is appearing as a dominant trend. Religion is becoming equated with “culture”.
Thanks to the massive postcolonial immigration that has taken place in recent years, France is today a state in
which people are increasingly concerned with their collective identities as
either “Maghrebi”/ ”Muslim” or “French”. It is important to see that this
creation of politicized ethnic identities exists on both sides, not just that of
the minorities. The core process of “ethnicization” involves linking a specific
population to distinctive cultural characteristics. The collective control of
female behavior and the use of feminine representations is central to this
process.
In the chaos that followed the fall of Saddam Hussein last month, the Hawza, a powerful group of senior Shiite Muslim clerics, took over al-Rahmah, an orphanage in Iraq.
