Analysis, Europe, Side Feature

Macron and his Version of France Hate Islam

Macron says Islam ‘in crisis’, prompting backlash from Muslims

‘Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world today’, says Macron, as he unveils plan to defend secularism. (Source: Al Jazeera And News Agencies)

Comment :

Why would an ‘ideologically strong’ secular European country denigrate and attack the beliefs, culture,  encourage the insult of the noble Prophet (saw) of 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide, and dehumanise and alienate a significant minority of its own citizens and victimise their women?

France used to be the cradle of ‘counter-cultures’ and ‘separatists’ from the Vaudois in the 12th century, the Huguenot in the 17th, to its Revolution in the 18th century. Why then such irrational, burning hatred for the creed, beliefs and laws of an ideology that was the spark for the Enlightenment of Europe?

Why should French secularism require the hammer of the state to oppress its vulnerable, significant minority. Why should a liberal secular state resort to the methods the Nazi Germany used against the Jews? Or mould Islam, in the vein of authoritarian China’s ‘CPC approved Imams’?

Why do they harbour animus toward Islam?

Is it because secularism hasn’t fulfilled the lives of the people? Is it because liberalism hasn’t been able to truly civilise and unite and therefore requires an ‘enemy within’ to distract and deflect?

Perhaps it is because France’s ‘republican model’ has failed to bring about actual social justice in the lives of its citizens, and instead French “absolute equality” has actually entrenched systemic discrimination. Liberté, égalité, fraternité has long ceased to have any meaning in the lives of the common citizen.

Perhaps it is because Covid-19 is further exposing the deceit, deficiencies and inadequacies of secularism as a compromised system, not fit for purpose, unfit for civilised, humane societies.

Perhaps it is because the ‘counter-ideology’ of Islam stands in the way of Macron’s naked ambition of Colonialism 3.0 in the Sahel, Sahara and Middle East. Perhaps it is because Islam calls for a true ‘counter-civilisation’ of genuine brotherhood across race, colour, class and (artificial) national boundaries. Islam is a humane and just system, fit for human beings that truly liberates and works towards the security and wellbeing of all its citizens and enriches without the need for dehumanising minorities, insulting their beliefs, nor the exploitation of the vulnerable or the poor.

For Macron and his bourgeois buddies, Islam is the problem and secularism (liberal capitalism) is the answer. For everyone else, secularism is the problem, and Islam is the answer. Allah (swt) informs the sincere,

وَقُلْ جَاءَ الْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ الْبَاطِلُ إِنَّ الْبَاطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقًا

And say: “Truth has (now) arrived, and Falsehood perished: for Falsehood is (by its nature) bound to perish.” [Al-Isrā’:81]

 

Muhammad Hamzah