Faith & Logic: Listening to the right voice

Every country has the right to legislate according to the desires of the people and to safeguard public interests, but the recent controversies on Islamic practices in Europe will only have the opposite effect. In the words of Carl Jung, “What you resist persists.”

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Int'l Desk
Source & Credit:The Daily Times | Pakistan
By Afnan Khan | March 9, 2010

Extremism in the Muslim world and the growth of the European far right can be considered two sides of the same coin. The demands of lesser rights for non-natives and ban on their religious and cultural practices are contrary to the West’s tall claims of being the torchbearers of human rights

Sweden’s refusal to take part in enforcing a burqa ban, initiated by France and other European countries, is an example of how a state can play a uniting role for its citizens against discriminatory legislation.

In a debate with the head of the opposition, Mona Ingeborg Sahlin from the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SDP), Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said that Sweden would not enforce a ban on the burqa. Sweden is considered a model social state and a successful multicultural test case, with fewer problems than those that have troubled France in recent years. It has been able to carve an agreement between the ruling party and the opposition over human rights and public welfare issues.

The SDP has established roots at the county level. A Swedish lawmaker of Pakistani origin, Nasim Malik, is head of one of the zones that are formed to promote inter-faith harmony and respect.

The plan to ban clothing or imagery that has a symbolic cultural or religious connotation, such as the full veil or burqa, can entail serious risks, with immigrant communities viewing such actions as an insult to their culture. Rather than having the desired effect of opening up immigrant groups, it may end up closing more doors.

Someone once said that scapegoat politics is all about knowing when to spill enough blood into the water to get the sharks into a feeding frenzy. The publication of and subsequent protests against the caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the recent banning of mosque minarets in Switzerland as well as the debate on a full veil ban in France have been taken up by orthodox clerics around the world. They have been able to provoke sentiments against what they often call ‘Western infidels’, drowning out voices of reason. As they become more aggressive in their campaign against a perceived global conspiracy against Muslims, they cause the Western nations to tighten security and to take more severe measures.

Every country has the right to legislate according to the desires of the people and to safeguard public interests, but the recent controversies on Islamic practices in Europe will only have the opposite effect. In the words of Carl Jung, “What you resist persists.”

Public voices calling for the banning cultural or religious symbols and practices such as the burqa need to understand that censorship can create more anger within certain groups manipulated by self-designated community leaders.

There are others involved in this politics who argue that there is indeed a war — the enlightened West against the barbarian hordes — a theme popular with far-right groups, such as the British National Party (BNP) or the Dutch Freedom Party (DFP). There are hawks on both sides of the divide.

Many of Europe’s far right parties are getting stronger day by day, as the notion that terrorism and extremism is growing in the Muslim world is gaining strength. It is clear that an increase in extremism in Muslim countries and racist voices of the Western far right are directly proportional to each other.

Other examples of far right parties gaining strength in Europe include significant achievements of the Danish People’s Party (DPP) in Denmark, the National Front (NF) in France and the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO). All of them are tagged as hardliners, anti-immigrant and racist by many even in their own countries.

FPO’s current leader Heinz Strache and his predecessor Jörg Haider were not only considered anti-Semitics, they also praised Nazi policies and wanted tough immigration laws. They also considered Turkey’s failure to get the European Union’s membership as the West’s victory over Islam. Another example of the resolve of European hardliners is a Dutch far right leader Pim Fortuyn’s comment that Islam is backward. These examples are enough to gauge the level of the right-wingers’ biases towards other races.

Extremism in the Muslim world and the growth of the European far right can be considered two sides of the same coin. The demands of lesser rights for non-natives and ban on their religious and cultural practices are contrary to the West’s tall claims of being the torchbearers of human rights.

Directly or indirectly, hawks from both corners are giving each other a political edge through their extremist deeds and are gaining support and popularity among people. The extremists on both sides tend to overlook, or obscure, the role that is played by all citizens of all backgrounds in building up the social and economic progress of a nation. Those who demand the burqa or hijab ban also tend to forget that Muslims are not monolithic, and that a majority of them do not want to keep the full veil.

The editor of a Swedish daily, Barometer, beautifully explained the phenomenon by illustrating that there were so many different religions and cultures existing in Europe in the form of practitioners of these beliefs, which have come and gone.

The traditional clothing and cultures of the Roma, of the Ashkenazi Jews, the empires of old, each had come, made its mark, and left, leaving something behind. The trend of full veil among Muslim women might have started with the wave of extremism across the globe because it was not evident among the Muslims living in Europe before 1960 to this same extent.

It is possible that the burqa and its kin will face a similar fate — it will no longer be taken up as symbolic of identity, or a form of social control, but just as something that is quaint and will be ultimately forgotten.

Countries like Sweden could be considered a sane voice in a tense situation such as this. This country should be urged to place its role as a global peacemaker by putting different people together in peace conferences and moots of intellectuals and writers from both the East and the West.

The writer is a staff member. He can be reached at afnankhanlodhi@gmail.com

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