Haunted Presents: Europeans, Muslim Immigrants and the Onus of European-Jewish Histories

Haunted presents appraises the tangled, complex causes and effects of Muslim immigration and acclimation in contemporary Europe. It examines the interrelations between Muslim minority immigrants and the local communities in which they settle, with an accent on the impact of and on Jewish communities and Judaism.

The analysis is based on media reporting and comment between the 2005 and 2015. It provides a solid and informative background to mass Muslim immigration to Europe and the subsequent experiences of terror, conflict and racism, as well as the religious, social and political clashes of the present time. No other scholarly work succeeds in presenting a more comprehensive, coherent and cohesive overview of the elements behind the headline-making news emerging from the tumultuous state which is Europe today.

Among the topics discussed are the contribution of Muslims and Jews to Europe's culture, economy and society; the painful European-Jewish record and its implications for European-Muslim relations; the Holocaust; the European Right and its views and agendas regarding Jews, Muslim immigration and its contacts with the State of Israel; Muslim violence, anti-Semitism and terrorist activity against European Jews and Jewish and Israeli interests; European restrictions on Muslim and Jewish religious rites and institutions (male circumcision, mosques, kosher and halal slaughter); and more. In a nuanced appeal to reason and hope throughout, the approach is characterised by a view to affirming a positive future that does not have to reflect the past and present.