Seite - 141 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Band 2/2016

Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 2 2o16 Peter Burke | Cultural displacements and intellectual moorings 141 Today, Western Europe is definitely made up of a secular society. When currently islamopho- bic emotions are aroused by media and politicians, this cannot build on strong confessional Christian beliefs: those who behave islamophobic are no longer substantially Christian7. It does not matter whether the West Indian arriving in the UK are Christian, they are not treated better than the Muslims when they come. People who dislike the migrants dislike them because they are “different”, because they have a “different” culture. I think even UKIP here does not talk much about Christianity, it talks about ‘England for the English’.8 Ironically, the immigrants are leading to a kind of revival of Christianity in the UK. It is not the Anglican Church, though, that is reviving. The Poles go to the Catholic church, the West Africans found their own, usually Pentecostal, churches. But it means that a greater num- ber of people are going to churches of some kind on Sunday than thirty years ago. Today, religion is not as decisive as in the past, when a prince made it his political principle. “Islamophoby” is rather a disguise for other goals. I am not sure that I agree. Religion is part of a package of differences in clothing, food, skin colour, customs etc. For some inhabitants of London, Paris, Zurich etc, to see a mosque opening in ‘their’ city is a shock (think of the recent minaret controversy in Switzerland). We state indeed that in this debate we become more Christian. But although we observe that churchgoing practice is increasing in recent years – in every religious segment equally – this doesn’t mean that religious differences constitute a line of conflict. At issue is “difference” and “making difference”. There is often kind of a book keeping of gains and losses in migratory movements, politically intended to soothe concerns. But is book keeping on cultures, knowledges and practices ulti- mately possible? It is book keeping metaphorically, because you cannot quantify it. You can simply say there are gains and losses which we cannot weigh properly. At a personal level there is lot of loss. People have lost their identity because they are in a totally strange culture. They have lost their original occupation and they might not be able to find a job doing what they did. You may be a professor at home but you may be a taxi driver in the new country. There is nostalgia for the homeland, there is the problem of learning the new language. There is a difference with generations, too. For people who are going to migrate aged fifty or sixty it is not reasonable to expect them to change their habits very much or even to learn 7 A brief review of German internet fora shows that “islamophobes” are easily equated with “bad Christians”. It is more complicated in the case of France, where laicism is considered the basis of the nation state: “Le Front national accuse les musulmans non pas d’être de «  mauvais chrétiens  » mais de «  mauvais laïques  » et donc de «  mauvais Français  ».” See Vincent Geisser. 2011. ‘L’islam au tribunal de l’identité’, in Témoignage Chrétien, politique et société, January 6, 2011, URL <http://temoignagechretien.fr/articles/politique-societe/lislam-au- tribunal-de-lidentite> [accessed 2016-01-17] 8 Christian Soldiers of UKIP express what Christian minded people expect from UKIP: “Some Christians of a conservative persuasion have been drawn to UKIP due to its support of tradition. They see the party’s defence of British values – rooted in Christianity and democracy – as being admirable”, they assume that the party would act against secular liberalism and follow its stance against same-sex marriage. See: Christians in Politics. 2016. ‘Christian involvement in UKIP’, in Show up, Guide to UKIP, URL <http://www.christiansinpolitics.org.uk/ showup/showup-parties/guide-to-ukip/> [accessed 2016-01-17]