Nilüfer Göle Islam, European public space, and civility It is not distance from but proximity to modern life that triggers a return to religious identity among migrant Muslims in Europe, says Nilüfer Göle. What we are witnessing today is a shift from a Muslim to an Islamist identity. The religious self for individual Muslims is being shifted from the private to the public realm. It is puzzling to ascribe a role in European integration to religion, especially to me as a researcher of Islam, and with a Turkish background. For me, the role of religion in respect to the European Union acquires a different meaning. This is first of all because when we refer to the role of religion in European integration and to Islam in particular, we usually think of it in negative terms, namely as a hindrance to European integration. Secondly, a person with a Turkish background would be inclined to tackle this issue in a specific way. Turkish modernists have been uncompromisingly secular since the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, and they still are. In consequence, European integration or Europeanness means the final accomplishment of a secular project for those Turks who embrace European values of modernity. Therefore, from this particular historical and cultural background, it is puzzling to think of European citizenship as integration through religion. On the other hand, it is a challenge to encourage rethinking the role of religion in the construction of Europeanness, not only from the dominant perspective of Christian heritage, but also in relation to the Islamic presence. "The role of religion in European integration" is a title that invites us to rethink the issue of religion as a kind of positive force, a positive value -- Danièle Hervieu Léger called it "le travail civilisationnel". Seen from the angle of Islamic religion, this appears to be a much more difficult task, not only because today Islam is used (and misused) as a political force of opposition for Muslim agency, but also because it is perceived by many Europeans as the different "other", thereby necessitating containment and exclusion. The presence of Islam through migration in European countries, but also through Turkey's candidacy for the European Union, addresses new issues of difference and tolerance in Western democracies. Turkey as a candidate EU member state triggered a public debate in many European countries. The discussions during the Copenhagen summit (2002) illustrated well the importance of Islam in European public debate. It was perhaps on this occasion that the identity of the European Union and the meaning of Europeanness were debated for the first time, not only by politicians and technocrats, but by an involved society at large. An article from www.eurozine.com 1/7