French Radical Extremism Legitimises Itself Under The Garb Of French Secularism And Attacks On French And Non-French Muslims
By Asad Mirza
November 6,
2020
The recent
storm over the inflammatory statements against the Holy prophet and Islam
itself, by the French President Macron has set the Muslim world on fire.
Leaders of all hues and denominations have condemned the so-called latest
attacks on Islam. The outcry as expected follows a similar pattern after any
anti-Islam incident takes place in the Western world. We need to take a long
breath, pause and wonder on the similarity of attacks and the Islamic response
to it globally.
Muslims,
unlike other followers of the books do not believe in ruminating about the
past. Instead they move on with times. While the two other communities, which
follow the book, impart their young generations about the atrocities faced by
them in the past, instil anti-Islam feelings in them. Alongside the western
world also continues with its activities related to interfaith relations and
peaceful coexistence. In real terms one wonders whether these activities are
indeed carried out with intentions or are just a eyewash, while beneath the
surface anti-Islam hatred continues unabated, as they are in real terms afraid
of Islam and its teachings.
What has
happened in France is nothing new. The French radical extremism, legitimises
itself under the French term laicité meaning secular, and under this garb it
continues its attacks on French and non-French Muslims, and this deceiving is
nothing new.
A French NGO,
The Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) listed 1,043 Islamophobic
incidents that occurred in 2019 (a 77 percent increase since 2017). Not so far
back, in October 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron and his then Interior
Minister Christophe Castaner connected terrorism in France to any signs of
French Muslims’ faith and culture, including having a beard, praying five times
a day, eating halal food, etc.
‘Liberating’ Islam
Last week,
Macron declared “Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world
today, we are not just seeing this in our country”. He added that he is seeking
to “liberate” Islam in France from foreign influences by improving oversight of
mosque financing.
One wonders
who gave the right to Macron to ‘liberate Islam’. Historically, Macron is not
the first French ruler who wanted to “liberate” Islam. This is an old French
“secular” tradition from the times of Napoleon Bonaparte. When Napoleon invaded
Egypt and Palestine in 1798, he lied to the Egyptians by announcing that he and
his army were “faithful Muslims” and that they have come to liberate Muslims
and Islam from the tyranny of the Turk Mamluks.
However,
the deception did not work and both the Egyptians and Palestinians rose against
him. Napoleon was defeated, though his army committed untold atrocities in
Egypt and Palestine. At that time Napoleon and France wanted to avenge the
defeat faced by French forces in the Palestinian city of Acre, two centuries
ago.
French Invasion of Algeria
The French
invasion of Algeria was launched in mid-June 1830 and Algiers fell on 5 July.
The French army robbed Algiers’ treasury clean, stealing upwards of 43 million
Francs in gold and silver. The French King Charles X told the French National
Assembly that the immediate goals of the invasion were to avenge the French for
the Algerian insult, besides “ending piracy and reclaim Algeria for
Christianity”.
In line
with its Christian commitments, the conquering French army took over mosques
and converted them into churches and cathedrals at gunpoint, including the
largest Ottoman Ketchaoua mosque in Algiers, built in 1612, which was converted
into the Cathedral of St Philippe in December 1832. That same year the French
wiped out the entire tribe of the Ouffias, sparing no woman or child, and
seizing all their possessions.
French Barbarism
We should
not forget the French barbarism, which has been recorded for posterity by
history. In 1871, Algerian Muslims revolted again against French rule, with
150,000 people joining the forces of a local tribal leader, Al-Muqrani.
The French
genocidal machine responded by killing hundreds of thousands of Algerians,
which, combined with the French-caused famine deaths in the late 1860s,
resulted in the death of one million Algerians. The French razed dozens of
towns and villages to the ground while eliminating the entire elite of Algerian
society. But even that did not resolve France’s “crisis” with Islam.
During the
19th century, France colonised many Muslim nations, and thus their concern
about their “crisis” with Islam increased further. To answer this quest, a
journalist of ill repute and with known anti-Turk views was appointed to seek
answers. Edmond Fazy (1870-1910) presented his analysis in the form of Questions diplomatiques et colonials, which
contained submissions by known anti-Muslim and anti-Turk academics, journalists
or so-called experts on Islam and African nations.
Future of Islam
Chauvinism
and hate has always dominated the French culture, whether it is with the
British or Islamists. Many of the contributors to Fazy’s journal saw fit to
manipulate Islamic theology and transform Muslim Ulema to produce not only a
modern Islam that European modernity would tolerate, but also one that, they
hoped, would weaken the Ottoman Empire.
The project
of transforming Islam into something compatible with European Christianity and
which French laicite can tolerate continues afoot in 2020, but with
unsatisfactory results as far as Macron is concerned.
Both the
French Muslims and immigrant Muslims continue to face an institutionalised
discrimination in France. The country continues to be submerged in a dominant
discourse of chauvinism and hate today that is not dissimilar to the one that
always dominated French culture even before the French Revolution.
The current
French crisis is based on its white supremacist Christian agenda and a country
holding on to its past glories or misdeeds, while in reality they should strive
to undo or repent their misdeeds committed by them in the former colonies held
by them.
What the
French need to do is to pay back the debts they owe to all those whom they
robbed and killed around the world since then. Only that will end France’s
crisis with “Islam” and with itself.
At the same
time, Muslims across the globe need to connect or reconcile their national,
ethnic and sectarian identities within the context of Islam’s inner unity and
integrity based on moral and human grounds, on the one hand, and maintain its
global and cosmopolitan outlook on the other. This will be the best antidote
against such vitriolic agenda.
----
Asad Mirza is a political commentator based in
New Delhi. He was also associated with
BBC Urdu Service and Khaleej Times of Dubai.
Original Headline: France and Islam
Source: The Greater Kashmir
URl: https://newageislam.com/islam-west/french-radical-extremism-legitimises-itself/d/123390
New
Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism