The critical spirit should be introduced to the sacred part of Islam, Zarka

By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent

PARIS, March 12 (IslamOnline.net) – Islam in France should be “comprehensively reviewed” to have the ability to integrate in the rigidly-secular republic, a French writer has argued.

Yves Charles Zarka asked 70 writers and researchers about what should be done for Islam to adapt with principles of secularism in France.

The answers made his 700-page book, “Islam In France”, released Wednesday, March 10.

Zarka said in the preface that Islam could accord with the idea of the Republic in France, only with two conditions.

The critical spirit should be introduced to the sacred part of Islam and – the second condition – the religion should jettison its social side marked with the absence of equality, according to the French writer.

An editor-in-chief of a French magazine, Zarka claimed that Islam poses a special problem in the country, something he said requires a defense of values of democracy.

Democracy is not ethnical or national, but rather of a world value, he said.

Zarka attributed the problems triggered by Islam in the European state to the fact that the Islamic community is a heavyweight with 5-6 million members of the overall 61-million population.

Also, Muslims in France, mostly descending from the Arab Maghreb countries, are  more associated with Arab “Islamists” – unlike the Turkish in Germany and Pakistanis in Britain, he said.

The colonial history of Moroccans in general and the war in Algeria against French occupiers in particular spread a feeling of victimization among the Arab Maghreb descendents in France. Zarka said this has turned them closer to what he termed as “extremist Islamic groups”.

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy admitted in February last year that conditions of the country's Muslim community are not good.

But he said the problem is that many of the French people fear Islam and Muslims because they do not know much about them, and that Muslims feel they are being suspected and disdained by others in the country only because of their religion.

Self-Criticism

The cover of the book shows a man wearing a beard and carrying a Qur’an in hands and a woman at his back carrying the country’s constitution – in reference to what the writer sees as “a contrast between Islam and the values of the French Republic”.

The writer warned the French people against what he terms as “the inclusive nature of Islam, which he said they are unaware of”.

The country has been in the throes of a fierce debate over the ban of hijab – a religious obligation for female Muslim to put on.

The French Senate approved by a large majority a bill banning hijab and other religious insignia in state schools on Wednesday, March 3, despite the mass protests by Muslims at home and abroad and human rights at home and the appeal of some countries against the move.

French President Jacques Chirac said in a televised speech in December 2003 that the "Islamic veil - whatever name we give it - the kappa and a cross that is of plainly excessive dimensions" have no place  in the precincts of state schools.

‘Hardliners’ Domination’

The cover of the book

Zarka called on the silent majority of Muslims in France to move and take action, which he said is now dominated by “Islamic extremists”.

“The hardliners took control of societies and organizations, and their influence stretched to suburbs, where they distribute donations to the poor and needy,” he said.

The Islamists also infiltrated into the anti-globalization groups as a new ground to play in, he added, naming Swiss Islamic scholar Tarek Ramadan.

Zarka called on Muslim intellectuals to practice self-criticism, lamenting that changes now are more hard to make as most of those able to do so are out of their home countries.

The criticism should include the internal institutions, including those related to the holy part and re-interpretation of it, he claimed.

Zarka further argued that the French Council of Islamic Faith is dominated by extremists at helms, since it is undemocratic organization only established to face up to the invasion of a “foreign version” of Islam.

French officials claimed that the ban on hijab comes as a bid to tighten the grip on extremists and maintain the secular principles in the country.

"Secularism is one of the great conquests of the republic. It is an element crucial to our social peace and national cohesion. We cannot let it weaken. We must work to reinforce it," Chirac said in the televised speech.

On December 6, Chirac described hijab as "a sort of aggression" during a meeting with students at the Pierre Mendes-France School in the Tunisian capital.

Human Rights Watch also said in a report published on Friday, February 27, that the law- expected in effect in September 2003 - is “discriminatory” as it disproportionately affects Muslim girls in the European country.