Macron Is Demanding Muslims Give Up Their Religious Values At A Time When Secular France Doubts Its Own Values
By Ibrahim Kalin
8 Nov 2020
The “Muslim
question” today is fast becoming what the “Jewish question” was in 19th-century
Europe. Negative attitudes towards Islam and Muslim communities are
increasingly setting limits to religious tolerance, pluralism and democracy.
French President Emmanuel
Macron presents his strategy to fight what he calls 'separatism' on October 2,
2020 in Les Mureaux, outside Paris [File: Ludovic Marin /Pool via AP]
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French
President Emmanuel Macron appears to have consciously taken the lead in
launching a secular crusade to “save the soul of Europe” but his actions are
misguided because they play right into the hands of the extremists he purports
to target. Publishing sacrilegious and tasteless cartoons of the Prophet of
Islam and doubling down on them is not defending freedom of expression; it is
an extremist action in its own right.
As
University of Pennsylvania scholar Anne Norton notes in her brilliant book, On
the Muslim Question, the Jewish question in the 19th century was a test for the
Enlightenment values of reason, tolerance and inclusivity. It was only by
treating Jews, subject to centuries of discrimination and persecution, as
equals that Europe could have claimed to be a civilisation based on reason,
virtue and freedom. Today, the treatment of Islam and Muslim communities in the
West is a litmus test for the democratic and pluralistic values Western societies
claim to espouse.
The streak
of violence that we have witnessed over the last few months in Europe heralds a
new and dangerous episode in the modern history of religious and secular
extremism: As absolutist ideologies, they both want to impose their will on the
world and do not shy away from victimising everyone along the way. Extremism
and absolutism in their religious and secular forms recognise no ethnic or
religious boundaries.
By
declaring that “Islam is in crisis all over the world” and defending the
re-publication of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet of Islam, Macron
not only creates new opportunities for ISIL, al-Qaeda and similar groups to
recruit and escalate violence, but he also offends the entire Muslim world.
Asking
others to give up on their religious values because you have lost them does not
make your politics any more reasonable or respectful. For Muslims, Prophet
Muhammad remains the most sacred and revered person regardless of how much
secularism, modernity, Enlightenment or technological progress shape the places
they live. Respecting this is not a compromise to violent extremism but a moral
and political duty.
Macron may
seek some political advantages in championing a new secular crusade against
Islam and presenting the Muslim minority communities as “the other” of Western
civilisation. But this quest will not help alleviate the crisis that his
country and others in the region find themselves in.
He calls
for a reform of Islam so it would conform to the “values” of the French Republic
at a time when his society has lost belief in these very values. Self-doubt,
however, does not seem to deter deep-seated imperialist impulses.
If it was
only a matter of Macron acting with a sense of political vengeance, things
would have been easier to settle, but it goes deeper than that. His behaviour
and rhetoric reflect post-Enlightenment rationalist arrogance – a mindset that
seeks to salvage Western rationalism from its ruins by attacking Islam and
Muslims as the antithesis of the modern secular world.
This brute
secularism and Euro-centrism is part of the problem. How can one otherwise
explain calls for a “French Islam”, whatever that is, when we hear no such
calls for French Christianity, French Judaism, French Hinduism, etc?
Macron may
or may not get what he wants but the political trenches he has dug himself into
will only undermine further the political mainstream which is already under a
constant attack from the far right in Europe. If this is the spirit of Macron’s
politics, it is certainly a far cry from the more thoughtful and interpretive
politics of the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur under whom Macron studied in
university.
Muslims
across the world condemn and denounce the extremists and terrorists who
manipulate their religion in the name of fighting the evils of the modern
secular Western culture. As a Muslim, it is my duty before anyone else to
reject the brutalisation of my faith at the hands of a few violent extremists.
I have to fight against the social and religious environment that produces the
likes of ISIL, al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups that kill more Muslims than
any other group and hurt Islam more than any other adversary. There is no
ambiguity here.
But the
publication and sanctioning of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons by the political
elites in the name of freedom of expression is another form of violence against
the hearts and minds of all Muslims around the world. It only raises the walls
of separation between Islamic and Western societies. It deepens the sense of
mistrust at a time when we badly need mutual trust.
Speaking
out against this form of violence is not whitewashing the crimes of the
terrorists in France, Austria and elsewhere. It is a civic and political duty
to reject extremism in all of its forms whether religious or secular. Yes,
violence breeds violence. We must break this vicious cycle in all of its forms.
The
so-called “Muslim question” of present-day Europe will not be solved by waging
new secular crusades. It requires wiser politics, a true sense of respect
towards the other and a more serious consideration of our shared values and
common future.
Original Headline: Europe’s ‘Muslim question’
and the new secular crusade
Source: Al-Jazeera
URl: https://newageislam.com/islam-west/macron-demanding-muslims-give-up/d/123412
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