Multicultural Western Nations and Islamic Secularism
By
Syed Mohammad Ali
January 01,
2021
Oblivious
perhaps to the treatment of minorities within their own midst, many Muslim
countries around the world are noting with concern the growing spectre of
discrimination confronting their brethren in a modern and secular country like
France. Putting aside the myopia which afflicts Muslims countries themselves,
what is happening to Muslims in France, which is considered a paragon of the
values of Enlightenment, is in fact an issue of concern.
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The French
Revolution’s motto of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité has inspired governance
reforms across much of the so-called Western world. These ideals of creating a
sense of national solidarity based on notions of freedom and equality have had
a major impact on building narratives of multicultural societies across Europe,
Australia and the US. Amidst new stresses ushered in by globalisation, which
have escalated migration and increased wealth inequalities, the need for
embracing such equalising principles assumes more relevance within countries
aiming to offer inclusive citizenship to their diverse citizenry.
Accompanying
the aspirations of creating multicultural nations, many Western states have
also embraced the notion of being secular. The notion of Laïcité, best
translated as secularism, has also been championed by France, which passed a
law back in 1905, to establish a separation of church and state. The idea of
secularism aspires to guarantee the freedom to practise religion while ensuring
the neutrality of the state. The idea of secular governments allowing for freedom
of religion is considered a crowning achievement of Western countries, which is
readily cited as a major difference between them and other secular ideologies
such as communism, which sought to repress religious expression.
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Also Read:
Embrace What Is Different: Quran and Hadith Stress on Building an
Inclusive Society
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Yet, the
term secularism is also not without contention and should not be taken at face
value. Especially since 9/11, we have seen an explosion of intolerance which
seems incompatible with the idea of religious freedom in many modern societies.
Yet, this contradiction is understandable if one goes beyond the rhetoric of
what constitutes secularism.
Anthropologist
Talal Asad has compellingly dismantled commonly held assumptions about
secularism. He has demonstrated how much attention has been paid to the study
of the strangeness of the non-Western world and its apparent non-rational
dimensions of social life such as myth, taboo, and religion. Yet, the modern
and secular have not been adequately examined.
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Also Read:
The False Binary of
the Secular versus Islamic Needs to Be Broken
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Asad argues
that secularism cannot be viewed as a successor to religion or automatically
assumed to be based on principles of rationality. The adoption of secular
principles may aim to create a division between public and private realms which
allows religious diversity to flourish, but is often not practised. Secularism
itself can become a vehicle for ensuring harsh forms of exclusion.
Besides the
Swiss ban on building minarets or attempts to discourage veiling by Muslim
women in France or Quebec, many forms of Islamophobia have emerged across
Western countries. Most glaring perhaps are attempts to publish caricatures,
which Muslims deem as being blasphemous, and defend such moves in the name of
freedom of expression.
Nobel
laureate for literature Gunder Grass had rightly dismissed the framing of such
offensive acts as the right to free speech or as symbols of resisting
capitulation to Islamic extremists. Instead, Grass likened such attempts —
after caricatures of the Prophet (peace be upon him) appeared in 2005 in a
Danish newspaper — to Nazi caricatures of Jews.
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Many of
today’s so-called modern and secular societies have come into being on the back
of colonial and imperial legacies, and have major racial and class-based
divisions within their midst. Such countries need to work harder to re-imagine
notions of citizenship which transcend over-valued notions such as secularism.
Otherwise, Muslims in the West may continue to be treated as a distinctive
minority either to be tolerated by those of a liberal orientation, or
restricted by those possessing populist dispositions.
Original
Headline: Secularism versus Muslims
Source: The Express Tribune
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-west/multicultural-western-nations-islamic-secularism/d/124211
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