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Our
Hijab: A Crisis of Understanding page has shown a
non-apologetic and balanced approach in negating the secular
dictatorial psychosis. Still, we have chosen an equal, truthful
exercise of self-penetration to profoundly resolve the crisis.
As we expect the malaise to fly around in the European air--to
Germany and the Netherlands and also Belgium-new ideas continue
to surface and others seem to be unearthed.
The
shortly ended European Commission conference on Anti-Semitism
and its vow to counter the “actions” and “inactions” of
such practices, especially in France and Germany, exposed new
dimensions for the future. Sincere yet radical, France’s
response to growing anti-Semitic practices, frowned upon by
traditional Islam, found in banning hijab a mask to defuse
Muslims. If one reads the statistics of the anti-Semitic
incidents in France, they are highly related to Israeli
practices in Palestine. We can spare ourselves the cliché-ridden,
criminalizing gazes and, yes, admit that many Muslims do have a
role to play.
Religion
is a very sensitive topic. But is not what the French
officialdom did was to try to eliminate the alienation of a
religious minority by the suppression of another equally
alienated one? Religion is the source of a French public
problem, and some Muslims are indeed partially responsible for
that French “fear.” Yet is the solution in their
suppression?
Why
not give space and work hand-in-hand with Muslim religious
authorities to try to solve the problem? Why not set the stage
for open discussions on Muslim-Jewish relations in France? Why
not further investigate the roots of the problem and uncover the
mutual misunderstandings that lie behind it? Why not
religion-cure what “religious” reaction to irreligion
injured?
Muslims
in France and elsewhere should be the first to counter
anti-Semitism, with the same force they defend the impartial
Palestinian rights.
Perhaps
the solution is a dual solution: Muslim communities should be in
tune with the courteous and charitable spirit of Islam and the
Islamic juristics of living in non-Muslim land. Living Islam is
the best way to get Allah and the world to be on our side. Also,
uniting, mobilizing and rooting ourselves in public and civic
action is the way to strengthen the Muslim local block in
Europe. European civil society, no matter how moral, cannot work
on behalf of the invisible, the unknown, and least of all
positively active. |
