Background information

The article “You Can’t Go Home Again” by Tariq Ramadan talks about the presence of Muslims in Europe. Islam is the second-largest religion in Europe after Christianity. While there are European countries where Muslims have been present for centuries, most Muslim communities in Europe have formed more recently, where people have immigrated from Muslim countries. 

The text mentions France and Britain as examples of countries with a large Muslim presence. It is worth noting that both France and Britain have a colonial past in Muslim countries. For example, Ramadan mentions North African and Pakistani Muslims (p. 204, l. 15). France had colonies in North African territories such as Sudan or Niger, while Pakistan used to be part of British India. The people living in these territories were given French or British citizenship after their independence, suggesting the historical and indis...