The absurdity of France’s Islamophobia

Dear Mr Macron... you have finally said what you, and most like you, have felt all along. Your animosity towards Islam. Your lack of ample knowledge of Islam and your lack of compassion for millions of French Muslims, whom you accuse of non-assimilation; and whom you want to relegate as lesser French citizens under the guise of an impending bill to ‘strengthen the laïcité’ — separatism between state and religion.

You have said it on record that Islam is in crisis worldwide. And your government supports the republication and wider dissemination of the caricatures of Islam’s beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). And all this is done under the garb of ‘freedom of expression’ as France deems fit.

Taking on the crisis of Islam first. One would wish you to understand the fundamental difference between a faith, its basic building blocks, its enshrined principles and its followers. Followers are a motley crowd believing in different interpretations of the Holy Scriptures — just like in the other two great Abrahamic religions, Christianity and Judaism. Followers, at times, take verses out of context to justify acts not permitted under any religion. Did you say Christianity was in crisis when a Christian shooter in 2019 attacked a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing scores of innocent Muslim worshippers? No individual represents a faith.

I hope your knowledge of the history of the world is sufficient for you to understand the context of the Religious Wars (16-18^th centuries) in Europe and the colonisation of vast swathes of Asia and Africa by Western powers including France; and the forced conversions by Christian missionaries, unleashed in these unfortunate lands, to inject civility into their poor and hapless subjects, considered the ‘Whiteman’s burden’. Could we blame the great Christian religion for these wanton acts of commission and omission, including the continued brutalisation of places like Mali to this day for economic benefit?

One would wonder where the enshrined principles of French Revolution (1789-99), “Liberté, égalité, fraternité, ou la mort! (Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death!)”, would fit in the spirit of French political discourse today. And if what Voltaire (1694-1778) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and many others stood for, was only applicable to people of Christian faith.

Today’s debate considers millions of French Muslims immature citizens unable to comprehend ‘secular republicanism’. A French polling company, IFOP, in 2016, estimated French Muslims to be around four million. This number is phenomenally increased, considering continued migration and France’s area of influence in the Francophone world. Insulting the Prophet of your second largest religious community and remaining callously insensitive to their feelings is not only bad politics, it is poor leadership. These are your people. Liberty, equality and fraternity should apply to them also, especially the liberty to wear a headscarf by the women, who choose to do so.

Your argument about the freedom of expression is also a non-starter, as it was settled in the aftermath of Salman Rushdie’s infamous book, The Satanic Verses (1988). Twenty-first century civility forbids a freedom of expression that hurts a sizeable group of people who cannot avoid to be affected by it — directly or indirectly. Your nude beaches are your business but tinkering with the religious symbolism of any religion, including Islam, would be asking for trouble. Muslims do not believe in any hurtful freedom of speech, neither should you… the elected President of a civilised country having millions of Muslims.

So Mr President! It is not Islam that is in crisis, it may be some Muslims who cannot defend their faith and their rights; who get confused by the cacophony of propaganda against their great faith; who are unnecessarily apologist for every wrong that is committed in the name of their religion… who are in crisis. Why would a faith ordained by the Lord Himself be in crisis? Especially once we all — you too — believe that He is all powerful, all knowing and all encompassing. Did you ever profess Christianity was in crisis, or Judaism in decline?

Dear Mr Macron! It is not Islam that is in crisis, it is the bigots who rule over them and dominate them; and who generally engage their mouth much earlier than their brains — without full comprehension of a divine religion — who are in crisis. Islam will live on and flourish... as it has all these centuries... long after you and me go to see our Creator. And maybe the grandchildren of many French people would be blessed to be Muslims. The ravages of the coronavirus are at work to catapult this engineered world order. Maybe a just and non-exploitative system rises from it ashes. Who knows?

It is the same Prophet (PBUH), who was on friendly terms with King Najashi, a Christian of modern day Ethiopia (then Abyssinia). It was Muhammad’s (PBUH) influence that forbade pillaging other religions’ places of worship, called to spare people seeking asylum in places of worship during warfare and ensured the sanctity of other religions and their followers more than 1,400 years ago, when there was no liberty, equality and fraternity in Europe; as it reeled under the tyranny of serfdom and human exploitation. There is more to learn.

Instead of escaping in criticising the great faith of millions of your citizens for political point-scoring, try to find and address the underlying causes of unrest in your country. It is the selective application of liberty, equality and fraternity. It is the racial profiling and discrimination against Muslims in your urban ghettos on a daily basis. It is the ubiquitous, endless media tirade and careless statement like these. It is the dissemination of hurtful material with mala-fide intentions. It is forcing majority of innocent fence-sitters in your country to take unnecessary sides, polarising a peaceful society. It is social inequality and lack of opportunity especially for your Muslim citizens that you and other French governments need to address. Hiding behind the thick wall of Islamophobia will never help.

Remember! It is for people like you that the beloved Prophet of Islam (PBUH) decreed, “Kindness is a mark of the faith, and whoever has no kindness, has no faith.” Let this hadith be your guide next time around you give a judgment on Islam. For now concentrate on the French economy.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2020.

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