Will islamophobia bring an end to the multiculturalism?

Abstract

Having started after WWII, the immigration of foreigners
into Europe started challenging the homogeneity of the European
states. The predominantly Christian European countries became
tempted by the values of Islam, the religion brought by immigrants.
In order to facilitate the accommodation and adaptation of the
newcomers, different European countries adopted different
approaches to this challenge to the respective national identities.
The concept of multiculturalism, as a possible solution to the
peaceful coexistence of different cultures, became particularly
popular in the last two decades. However, the concept itself has
been challenged by the growing racism and xenophobia in Europe.
As the most visible manifestation of these sentiments toward
immigrants is islamophobia. Many factors contributed to the rise of
this phenomenon in Europe, among them the migration, terrorist
attacks on European soil in the new millennium and the rise of the
Islamic Caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Those events brought to the
surface different values of Islam and questioned their compatibility
with principles of the secular states in Europe. The prescriptive
nature of Islamic religion has brought many hardships to the liberal
democracies throughout Europe.
The long debate about the compatibility of the Islamic beliefs and
values with the modern and secular states continues in Europe. The
rising islamophobia in Europe is threatening to bring an end to the
concept of the multiculturalism. The co-existence of the Christianity
and Islam in the contemporary secular and liberal states of Europe
is challenged by the fear from Muslims and it remains to be seen
if this phenomenon will collapse the multicultural projects in many
European countries.