Islamophobia in France

Hello. Hello..

Over a period of time, I have been observing the political happenings around the world, I've been wanting to write about this but there has been a few life-altering moments that have occurred in my life that needed my attention and hence my life had been put on pause temporarily - but not anymore because I realised there's no point pausing your life when adversities arise. But enough of me, let's dive right in. 

Understandably, there are so many things happening in the world right now, from Trump's ongoing impeachment trials, Ireland's President, Michael Higgins on the recent "blind eye" criticism on British Imperialism, the farmers' protests in India, Biden's inaugaration, the Capitol attack, Reddit fueled GameStop rally against Wall Street, so on and so forth, the list is rather long so I'd rather focus on one topic at a time. 

Despite current happenings, we do have to sometimes look back at one specific event that had happened to dissect the what, why, how, when and where it all happened before moving forward. 

Why?....

Because sometimes you need to question them, provide a rationale, listen to opinions of others, keep an open mind and be willing to change your opinions.

Let's first discuss history, specifically the colonisation of North Africa. Let's lay this out in simple terms, in chronological order, with the 100 years war, when Normandy invaded England which resulted in a war between France and England which lasted for centuries, and the crusades. After the death of the King, the throne was claimed by the British, which then resulted in a war where they even managed to capture the king at one point. The Treaty of Bretigny was signed which awarded England a substantial amount of French Land.

France went to war against Spain to gain land, in coalition with Poland and Austria (their long time rival). During the 7 year war between France where France actually united forces with their long time rival, Austria and Britain allied with Prussia, the French lost which led to Britain became superior colonial power as France was forced to cede the majority of the colonial posessions to Britain and Spain.

During the French Revolution, the third estate which made up the working class disagreed with the voting system and hence went ahead and started their own government and started the National Assembly to pressure the formation of the constitution, after which the events of dismissing the French Minister lead to the Storming of the Bastille which led to feudalism being abolished and the Declaration of Rights of Man and of the citizen in 1973. 

The King tried to flee the country, but he was caught but 50 men were also killed which escalated to the Revolution being split into different factions (what is known as right wing and left wing). In 1792, monarchy was abolished and France was declared a republic. The radical revolutionaries or the right winged known as Jacobins, seized power and started executing just about everybody and anybody which is known as the Age of Terror. At the same time, the process to de-christianize people were also formed and even going to creating new calendars and new days of the week which led to the leader of this Age of Terror, Robespierre to be caught and executed.

Outside of France, Napoleon Bonaparte was leading the French Army to defeat it's enemies which then lead to a coup d'etat to grant himself the first Consult of France. We all know Napoleon rule was basically a military dictatorship which soon after, he gained the title of Emperor of France, during which time France was constantly at war with the rest of Europe. He moved across Europe and placed his family members rulers of the countries he conquered.

In his conquest to defeat Great Britain which he viewed as the only threat, he attacked Russia which proved to be a fatal mistake as it costed the lives of half a million troop members, which then led to the coalition of countries uniting to defeat France in the Battle of Leipsic (now known Battle of Leipzig), which resulted in Napoleon being defeated and the monarchy being restored and Napoleon being exiled to the island of Elba. However, he managed to escape after almost a year, came back to Paris, gathered an army and overthrew the monarchy but the coalition was formed against him and once again was defeated at Waterloo by Britain and Prussia. Napoleon was exiled again, to a place further to an island called St. Helena and died at age 51.

There was a convening of monarchs in Austria where the pre-revolution boundaries were re-created where France remained a great power. But once again after there was another revolution to overthrow Charles X in what was called the July Revolution and was replaced by the citizen king, Louis-Philippe (distant cousin of Charles X), almost at the same time when France invaded Algeria which is a very important colonial part of our story and ruled huge parts of Africa.

There were many revolutions during the time, but only in around 1868 did France look into their colonies due to the declining rate of the French population, they observed the Germans, Prussia, English and other races extending their influence which is when France, in order to retain their influence looked at how they needed to colonize Algeria with French speakers.

In around 1884, there were over 300,000 French established in Algeria, of which two-thirds were colonial born, other foreigners- like Germans, Italians, Maltese and others also came to the colonials and 70,000 Algerian Jews who gained French citizenships and speak French, more or less. Those from this group send their children to French schools, the men in the French regiments and are expected to assimilate to French culture.

The same occurred with Tunisia as well. Keep these as these become very important parts in our present events.

Now, let's reference the events that occurred on the 16th of October, where Samuel Paty, a teacher at a school in the West suburbs of Paris was beheaded by one of his students for allegedly sharing the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. 

Who is the Prophet Muhammad?

The Prophet Muhammad is a holy figure in Islam (an Abrahamic religion), in a nutshell is referred to as the last prophet of mankind by Muslims.

Now, let's reference the national motto of France: Liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, fraternity).

There have been arguments on the timeline, but we will just reference before the Reign of Terror, when the Third Estate (the working class majority) and some from the First Estate (the aristocrats) were putting the finishing touches to the Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789, which those who were clergyman and artistocrats did not approve of this, because it did mean that these rights declared are for everyone, not something that would have otherwise been given to them by the monarch, but something they just had by default and they were now losing their privilege. This inevitably has also defined the principles of France today. This worked out to abolish the exclusivity in rights of the monarchy, clergy and aristocrats and this can actually be seen see in France today.

Eventually this can be a defining moment in which has defined France to be secular - non-religious, there was no longer a state religion and the government was no longer ruled by religious definitions of what good and bad were but more to philosophical and human rights definitions.

Liberty referencing the exercising of one's rights whilst ensuring the same rights are enjoyed by others.

Equality referencing judicial rights, which means the law should punish and protect all, meaning to say no one person is above the law.

Fraternity, however, is a tricky one, because it refers more to moral obligations rather than rights, it's a tricky one because it refers more to links rather than statutes, community rather than individuality. It's conflicting because liberty and equality are both individualistic values whereas fraternity is more in reference to community. 

Let's now circle back to the beheading of the school teacher by Samuel Paty. 

Let's discuss the why?

Samuel Paty was a middle school teacher who taught history, geography and civics. Samuel Paty was killed because he had shown in a class the Charlie Hebdo's cartoon depicting the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, one of these cartoons depicted Muhammad naked with his genitalia exposed. It was said that Samuel Paty allowed his students to either cover their eyes or leave the class during this demonstration. 

Now, let's go to Charlie Hebdo. Charlie Hebdo is a satirical newspaper that have been well known to jest political figures and religious figures. In 2015, two armed French men forced their way into the French offices of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical newspaper, where 12 people were killed and 11 were injuries. This was also when the Je Suis Charlie slogan gained support in the media for freedom of speech. In 2012, Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad which caused the embassies and schools in over 20 countries.

France has always had a struggle with religion ever since the Declaration of Rights of man and citizen, in part because there is no value towards religion and this has become a belief system of French people. This inherently becomes a problem when some people, predominantly the muslims of North African descent continue to practice Islam and follow it by wearing head coverings and full face veils. However, France is the first country to ban face veils such as masks, helmets, balaclavas and niqabs. Arguably, this may seem like a very rational decision especially in light of safety, where facial identification is not present, but looking at today's world where face masks are mandatory in so many countries and freedom of expression is celebrated in a secular country such as France but not freedom of choice for Muslims. Does this mean that the French are racists and islamophobic? Arguably yes and no, because France is a secular country, they place no importance on religion hence, the saying "you fear what you don't know/you hate what you don't know" tend to be a recurring observation within France. Arguably however, it becomes a rather consequential effect where freedom of choice is directly impacted as the manner in which freedom of choice is limited to the societal standards of France and French people.

From my conversation with French people, I understand that France places no weightage on customs, religious beliefs and culture, and any French person is expected to embrace the French culture and by that it is also to be secular in the way they embrace religion and all aspects of religion. However, this belief clashes significantly with the Islamic religion as the Islamic religion believes that the practice of Islam should stand the test of time, unlike Christianity, Judaism and Islam remains the most strictly followed religion. However, there are principally irreconciliable differences and this undeniably with beliefs mean that they cannot comprehend the other. 

Hence, the narrative remains in France where because principally the difference are so stark, there can never be a compromise where both Islam and the French way can co-exist. Although, reasonably we can say that it all comes down to tolerance, understanding that two people don't see things the same way but choose to respect one another. Upon having further discussions with some of my French friends, some of them choose to label this as racism and also a lack of a civic mindset. But, lest as always, I leave it to you to interpret it as it is.

I leave my thoughts and narrative here for you to decipher.

Till my next post. xx