By Prof. Shah Alam Khan
Elena Beaulieu (name changed), the twenty five year old student from Paris, was among the 80 people killed at the Bataclan Concert venue. Having been to Paris thrice, I could very well imagine the young girl in her bright pink lipstick, dancing excitedly to the tunes of the Eagles of Death Metal, unwary of the danger that lingered in the Parisian air like a poisonous gas. The mindless violence and murder appears to have a perennial occurrence on the streets of Paris now. Following the attacks on Charlie Hebdo this January, ‘Jihadi terror’ on the French soil became a reality.
But is it all about jihad? Is it all about radical Islam? Is it all about the ‘us’ versus ‘them’, where ‘us’ represents the triad of freedom, democracy and liberty and ‘them’, darkness and violence?
It is essential to abhor and condemn violence but it is also essential for the French to introspect. The origins of Friday’s attacks do not lie solely in the dusty lanes of Syria or the sleepy hamlets of Iraq. They reside very much in the zones de non-droit (lawless zones) of Paris and the une rues of Strasbourg. These areas with Muslim dominance have been fertile grounds for the cultivation of the jihadi who is willing to blow himself up amidst a group of innocent restaurant goers.
What have the French society done to its migrant population which compelled third and fourth generation children to fall for radical Islam? How does a third generation British Pakistani (Muslim) rise to represent the country’s cricket team while a third generation French Algerian happily straps a detonating belt across his waist in the name of jihad? The difference is not in their faiths or the migrant trajectories their forefathers have taken, the difference lies in the glue that integrates them to their respective societies. A paradox of liberal progress, which the French society so sadly represents.
It is strange that in Auberviliers, a northern suburb of Paris, Muslim children take an off from school for the Friday prayers. Strange, because it doesn’t happen in any other part of Europe!
It is but ironical that Islam is the religion of the ghettos of France. The segregation of Moroccan and Algerian Muslims is brazen in the present day France with Islamophobia governing every aspect of social consent building. In 2004, the National Consulting Committee on Human Rights of France asked its people how they feel about major religions. Half of the population thought positively about Christianity while a whopping 66% thought negatively of Islam! When asked, “what do you think when you hear the word Islam?” A good 83% responded-“terrorism”. A study in 2007 in France concluded that those resumes with a Muslim surname found it extremely difficult to get through the short-listing process for different jobs.
The colonial past of France digs its teeth in its present. The heavy immigration of Muslims from Algeria, Morroco, Tunisia and other North African nations is the conclusion of that process. Ghettoization, prejudice and a pan indifference to their problems render them vulnerable to divisive and violent ideologies.
It is thus important to know what radical Islam and the likes of ISIS can do to the peace of the French society but it also equally important to realize what the French society needs to do to prevent this radicalization. As they say, peace is not the absence of war; it is the presence of justice.
Prof. Shah Alam Khan AIIMS, New Delhi
16 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org