If British Muslims think they’ve got it bad they should thank God that they don’t live in France, writes Roshan Muhammed Salih.
The news that a pregnant Muslim woman had her hijab ripped off by two thugs in Paris before being repeatedly kicked in the stomach causing her to miscarry doesn’t really surprise me.
It’s the logical consequence of years of racism, Islamophobia and arrogance promoted by the French state, establishment and intellectual classes.
I used to live in France when I was younger. I speak their over-rated language, I’m too familiar with their over-rated food and culture. And believe me, they have nothing to feel superior or arrogant about.
I can also say hand on heart that the place is an Islamophobic hellhole that makes Britain look like a liberal paradise.
Intellectual superiority
Firstly, the French have an unshakeable belief in their own intellectual and moral superiority. This may have been appropriate in 1789 (although even that’s debatable), but it certainly ain’t true today. In fact, the only thing they seem to excel at nowadays is bigotry.
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Secondly, let’s call a spade a spade – the French don’t like Islam and Muslims. They consider the religion “backward” and “medieval” and Muslims as little better than animals.
And thirdly, they actually know next to nothing about Islam and Muslims because their secular fundamentalism prohibits them from opening up their narrow minds and actually learning something about the 5 million “aliens” in their midst.
Now before anyone starts to call me a racist, I should add that I’m talking about the French state and establishment here, not every ordinary French non-Muslim, many of whom will agree with what I’m saying.
Islamophobia
France is a land which has a history of invading and occupying Muslim countries; France is a land which looks down on Islam from its secular, atheistic, pompous pedestal; France is a land which bans the hijab in schools. And I could go on and on.
Many French Muslims live in “les banlieues” – sink estates on the outskirts of major cities where unemployment, crime and deprivation are rampant. Their chances of succeeding in life are poor compared to other French citizens, especially if they value their faith and identity.
Britain, of course, has many of the same issues but the secularism here seems to be a little more tolerant and accepting of multiculturalism (although admittedly that is changing).
Moreover, French Islamophobia and stigmatization of Muslims as the “enemy within” as “extremists” and “terrorists” is quite mainstream in French society where the right-wing National Front party is a major force. And the ruling parties always seem to be playing towards the National Front’s right-wing supporters.
So given this state-sanctioned crusade against Islam and Muslims is it all that surprising that a pregnant Muslim woman gets kicked in the stomach repeatedly by the establishment’s footsoldiers? I don’t think it is.
@RMSalih
