On 2 October, President Macron acknowledged in a speech that France had failed its immigrant communities – immigrants, with lingering animosities, from French colonies where France committed untold atrocities, and with poor living conditions – creating “our own separatism” with ghettos of “misery and hardship” where people were lumped together according to their origins and social background. ‘Districts were created where the promise of the Republic has no longer been kept, and where messages of radicalism found resonance with some inhabitants’.
He also added that Islam is a religion which is experiencing a crisis today, all over the world, citing multiple reasons.
He inadvertently neglected to mention that evil resides in the heart of deviants that would do wrong with little encouragement from a variety of influences: religious hyperbole, greed, racism, ethnicity, vengeance, or political dogma. That those deviants are in the minority, and represent only themselves.
I recollect that two recent horrendous acts were committed by Christians: the Norway massacre of 2011 and the Christchurch massacre in 2018. Has the head of any Muslim country accused Christianity of having a crisis? Not that I recall. And, of course, and emphatically, Christianity does not have a crisis, and neither does any other religion. It is again an issue of deviants.
So, does Islam have a crisis, or is it France that has one?
It is said that terrorists, like fish, need a medium to swim in. Dry that medium and they would perish. In some countries, this pool was dried through good management, advice, counseling, etc. As a result, residents started pointing out deviants to security officers.
An example of those countries is England, which I am hoping France would model itself after. Because of centuries of colonization and exploitation, and poor living conditions, England appointed two talented individuals of Indian descent in key governmental positions: Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Home Office. In order to placate and pacify the Muslim communities, the mayors of London and Birmingham were chosen to be of Pakistani descent; inviting those who endured the brunt of colonization and injustices to the tent. This is the hope I have for not only France, but for other European countries with Muslim contingents. I hastily add that those individuals have also won due to merit and sometimes voting, however, the ground was ripe for their rise to prominence.
What President Macron has done is wrong, painting all Muslims with the same broad brush. He has to placate, calm, pacify, and appeal to the leading moderates in that community of 6 million, which is growing exponentially, bringing those and their followers to his side. Further, he needs to improve the living conditions in the ‘ghettos. Presently, he is on a wrong trajectory, and if he persists, there will be no end to the violence.
Now I would like to recount some Muslim killings and atrocities which are, sadly, out of mind.
Over the past several years, the Chinese government has locked up more than a million Uighurs. Uighur women have been subject to forced sterilization and forced marriages to Han Chinese men. Nearly half a million children have been placed in orphanages, despite their families being alive, and then subjected to political and cultural indoctrination.
In 1991, “The Lady”, as Aung San Suu Kyi is known, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the committee chairman called her “an outstanding example of the power of the powerless”. But since becoming Myanmar’s de facto leader in 2016, after a democratic opening up, Ms Suu Kyi has been rounded on by the same international leaders and activists who once supported her.
Outraged by the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh as a result of an army crackdown, they have accused her of doing nothing to stop rape, murder and possibly genocide by refusing to condemn the powerful military or acknowledge accounts of atrocities. Two Myanmar soldiers, Pvts. Zaw Naing Tun and Myo Win Tun, were shown on video confessing to carrying out orders to “shoot all that you see and all that you hear”. The lady was not stripped of her Peace Nobel prize.
The U.N. Human Rights Council, which passed a resolution establishing the fact-finding mission for Myanmar, has failed to do the same for the Uighur people despite repeated calls from human rights advocates, Instead, China is expected to soon be re-elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council, making the prospect of any action by the body on human rights abuses against the Uighurs virtually nil.
So, do Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism have a crisis? Or is it political expediency and deviancy?? I wonder what President Macron thinks about this!
Image credit: ActuaLitté