PARIS,
December 26 (IslamOnline.net) – A perusal of the annals of 2004 in
France makes it indeed the “year of Islam” with all its pluses and
minuses for the sizable Muslim community.
Topping
the pluses are the conversion of a record 50,000 people to Islam,
according to an Interior Ministry census, and big sales of books about
Islam.
Several
TV programs on Islam and Muslims also proved to be a must-see and
received due attention from the French.
On
the political landscape, two French citizens of North African origin
cruised their way into the Senate.
Alima
Boumediene Thiery of the Greens Party and Bariza Khiari of the
Socialist Party made big gains in the September 26 elections, securing
their seats in the upper house of French parliament.
Other
success stories of Muslims in France include the one of top Comedian
Jamel Debbouze, who is indeed a shining example of Muslims’ positive
integration into French society.
“I’m
proud of being Muslim. I fast the holy month of Ramadan, never drink
alcohol and do not smoke. I never thought about doing drugs,”
Debbouze always repeats on TV interviews.
The
Muslim achievements in 2004 were crowned by the release of two French
journalists who were held hostage in Iraq.
French
media thanked the country’s Muslim community in helping bring a
smile to French faces a few days before Christmas.
Leading
newspapers also highlighted the pivotal role played by the leaders of
the community to facilitate the release of Christian Chesnot and
Georges Malbrunot.
They
thanked in particular Lhaj Thami Breze, the president of the Union of
French Islamic Organizations (UOIF), and Dalil Boubakeur, chairman of
the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM), for their September
visit to Iraq and their heartfelt feelings for their fellow citizens.
Hijab
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|
French
Muslim schoolgirl Cennet Doganay shaved her head protesting the
hijab ban
|
Nonetheless,
the year 2004 had some bad news of the sizable Muslim community,
estimated at around 6 million.
Hijab
was indeed the thorniest issue that set off seismic waves in the
country, especially after a bill banning the veil and religious
insignia in state schools went into effect in September.
The
ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and the opposition Socialist
Party (PS) joined forces and got the measure enacted.
After
it came into fruition at the beginning of the new school year in
September, some 40 hijab-donned students were kicked out of state
schools.
One
of the schoolgirls shaved her head to protest the ban on hijab, which
is considered in Islam as obligatory and not a mere religious symbol.
Cennet
Doganay, 15, took off her hijab as she was entering the Louis Pasteur
Lycee high school in Strasbourg, eastern France, only to reveal a bald
head.
The
French measure triggered shock waves across the world, especially in
Arab and Muslim countries, and was dismissed by the US-based Human
Rights Watch (HRW) as “discriminatory.”
Former
French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who took over last month the
leadership of the UMP, has long opposed the law, warning it would
provoke a backlash among Muslims, who would view it as an “insult
and punishment”.
Sarkozy
further suggested a bandana as a possible alternative to hijab.
Imams
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De
Villepin pressed for teaching imams French history and culture
|
The
role of imams in French society also come under close scrutiny from
the interior ministry, which threatened to expel “radicals” and
close mosques preaching “Islamic fundamentalism.”
The
expulsion of Turkish Midhet Guler and Algerian imam Abdelkader
Bouziane brought the issue to the fore.
At
recommendations from French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin,
imams are now required to study
a
miscellany of subjects
on Islam and the history of secularism in France as a part of a
government initiative to help train them.
Jean
Jacques Rousseau’s 1762 Le Contract Social (the social contract),
the ideas of Baron de Montesquieu and Ibn Kathir’s interpretation of
the Noble Qur’an are among the mandatory subjects.
Islamophobia
The
year 2004 also witnessed a semantic battle in France regarding the use
of the term “Islamophobia” to refer to religious discrimination
and harassment against Muslims.
The
Movement against Racism and for Friendship among Peoples, an NGO,
recognized the term in a November conference as the best expression to
describe bigotry against Muslims.
Prime
Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin also used it during a meeting with
Boubakeur, also the rector of Paris Grand Mosque.
While
the term was also used by Sarkozy, President Jacques Chirac condemned
the phenomenon.
Vicent
Gisser, an expert in Islamic affairs who authored a book entitled Islamophobia,
told IslamOnline.net the term was not the making of Muslims.
“Islamophobia
is manifesting itself on the ground and not in the imagination of
Islamists as some claim,” he added.
The
French expert cited a series of racist and arson attacks on Muslims
and mosques across the country.
On
November 27, unknown people drove up to a house which serves as a
Muslim cultural centre and a mosque in the southern Corsican town of
Sartene and opened fire randomly.
The
imam of the mosque narrowly escaped death and the group left after
daubing a swastika and the slogan “Arabi For a” (Arabs Out in the
Corsican language) on the walls of the building.
French
experts and rights activists have warned of the unprecedented
escalation of Islamophobia and racist attacks against the Muslim and
Arab communities in France during the past two years.
