European Left, Muslim Immigrant Forge Alliance Against Bush

by Paolo Pontoniere

Just months after neo-Nazi Jean-Marie Le Pen shocked the world with a strong showing in French presidential elections, George W. Bush's aggressive stance toward Iraq seems to have accomplished what European activists could not: a strengthened European left, which is aligning itself with the continent's long-isolated Muslim immigrants.

The left has returned recently to power in Sweden and in Germany on a strong anti-war -- and to some extent, anti-American -- platform. Now strides are being made to bridge the gap that has been growing between established European citizens and the 25 million Muslim immigrants -- many of them conservative politically -- living on the continent.

The emerging picture doesn't bode well for European support for the Bush administration's plan to level a pre-emptive strike against Iraq. France, Germany and Russia have already voiced strong opposition to a U.S.-led invasion, and massive anti-war protests in Italy and in Great Britain are seeing substantial participation from Muslim organizations and Palestinian supporters.

"One couldn't really expect that the anti-war movement would be able to take off without establishing a direct link between the opposition to the invasion of Iraq and the desire to solve the Palestinian issue," says Italian foreign correspondent Gianni Perrelli. "Once that link is established, one cannot help but connect with the millions of Arab immigrants and political exiles that live in Europe."

At a September anti-war protest in London, some Palestinian activists and Muslim believers carried banners and chanted slogans that were clearly anti-American and anti-Bush, but most were simply against war in Iraq and for peace in the Middle East. "Saudi Arabia Against War" read one banner. On another, a group of Muslim women and children had written "No to War -- No to Saddam Dictatorship."

In Italy, too, a wave of anti-war protests has included immigrant participation. The ranks of the Girotondini -- a grassroots movement that works for accountability of public servants and political reform in Italy -- has swelled from a few thousand to millions thanks to, in part, the recent participation of many Islamic organizations and Muslim activists.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been one of the few European leaders to staunchly support the Bush administration's position on Iraq, going so far as to offer military assistance to the effort. The Muslims who have joined forces with Girotondini believe that, by opposing Berlusconi's plans for Italy, they will also register their displeasure with his alliance with Bush on Iraq. The Italian left had been in disarray since Berlusconi was elected, but the convergence between anti-war protesters and Muslim immigrants is infusing popular political debate with a new sense of purpose, and may pull the country away from its traditional right-left dichotomy.

For many Europeans, who have witnessed not only Le Pen's rising popularity but also neo-Nazi and neo-Fascist successes in some elections in Austria and Italy, the emergence of this new coalition that crosses religious and racial lines comes as a breath of fresh air.

"The media have focused a lot on how the Social Democrats may have won the German elections thanks to Schroeder's revving up of the anti-American propaganda," explains Polish-born political journalist Wlodek Goldkorn. "Very few, however, have considered the fact that Schroeder probably would have never been able to make it without the support of Muslim communities and the vote of Turkish-German citizens."

According to the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution -- a sort of Department of Homeland Security -- there are currently more than a million Muslim citizens living in Germany. New citizenship laws introduced in January 2000 have greatly simplified Germany's regulations for naturalizing foreign-born residents, and their number is expected to grow exponentially.

As European Muslims move out of their political and social isolation, the changes that result may have far-flung and unpredictable effects. The European peace movement's efforts to connect opposition to the war on Iraq to peace initiatives in Palestine may also help to overcome the ideological barriers that now separate Jewish doves from Arab peace advocates.

"Unless the Middle East conflict is solved, going into Iraq is just going to make the whole area explode," demonstrator Sharon Finmark told The Guardian during the recent peace march in London. Finmark is Jewish, and her position, should it become prevalent, may help to change anti-Jewish and anti-Arab sentiment in countries such as France, where the National Front used anti-Semitism to propel Le Pen into the French presidential ballot this summer.