The return of the ghetto: coming soon to a country near you

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Opinion which guides all our actions is governed by the appearance of things, not by their reality, said Henry Blount, an English traveler, after visiting the Ottoman Empire in 1636. Today, more than ever, the appearance of things, not their reality, shapes opinions in cross-cultural relations. And the appearance of things is nowhere more vital than in the relations between Islam and Western democracy, particularly in the perception of the veil.

ELIF ŞAFAK
ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News

  “Opinion which guides all our actions is governed by the appearance of things, not by their reality,” said Henry Blount, an English traveler, after visiting the Ottoman Empire in 1636. Today, more than ever, the appearance of things, not their reality, shapes opinions in cross-cultural relations. And the appearance of things is nowhere more vital than in the relations between Islam and Western democracy, particularly in the perception of “the veil.”  

  As passionate as the advocates of “a clash of civilizations” might be, the real challenge that awaits us is not between a supposedly monolithic East and a supposedly monolithic West. There are no impermeable boundaries anymore, no mutually excusive categories of East and West. The real challenge lies in the Yin-Yang, the black part within the white semicircle, and the white part within the black semicircle. It is not “the outside” that is going to test the main assumptions in Europe but “the inside.” Europe has yet to synchronize with the Muslim immigrants inside its borders.

  Turks living in Europe can be far more nationalist, conservative, reactionary and religious than Turks in Turkey. This fundamental truth often escapes the attention of the movers and shakers in Europe when they make their assessments of Turkey. Now and again, Western journalists jump into conclusions about “Turks” by observing solely, and even then superficially, Turkish immigrants in Europe. But the inflexibility of some Turkish immigrant communities in Europe is related less to their “Turkishness” than to “immigrant psychology.” 

  Back home here, within the daily routine of politics, things change and they change fast. “Change” is the underlying motto. Not so much for the immigrant abroad, though. The bigger the need to resist change, the deeper the withdrawal into cocoons -- ghettoes of glass. 

  Many would argue that there are no more ghettoes in Europe. They will say ghettoes are a thing of the past, like fairy castles, pretty princesses or evil witches. They are just as distant and unreal. Long gone are the restricted quarters in big cities. People can intermingle now. 

  And yet they don t. Instead they form “islands of the like-minded.” Most of the definitions of “the ghetto” are made from outside, by people who look at it from a distance. But a ghetto can only be grasped, sensed or defined from inside because it is a one-way window. Once you are in it, you can see out but cannot be seen in. A ghetto is not necessarily about fences or walls that make it unapproachable from outside. More than that, a ghetto is an invisible armor that is tailored from inside. The armor being invisible, if you wear it properly, you too can become invisible. And if you become invisible, you can still be different but never be treated differently. 

  While the immigrant is after this invisible armor, middle classes in Europe flee heterogeneity and multiculturalism as if they were fleeing a plague. Cosmopolitanism is a swear word for hardliners on all sides. Nobody wants to really, fully blend together. When it comes to marrying your own daughter or son, everyone s preference is marrying them to someone of their own blood. Same religion, same nationality, same skin, same culture. This ultimate fetishism with “blood” is the deepest malady of our times. We don t have the means to overcome it. 

  After 9/11, no country operates in a vacuum anymore. After 9/11, ghettoes are everywhere. It is a two-way road. While immigrants seek refuge in glass ghettoes of their own, middle classes in the countries in which they live form other ghettoes of cultural biases and elitism. Whichever way you slice it, one thing is clear: the ghetto is not a bygone product of history. It is a contemporary woe.