West pushing law for Jews and and another for Muslims
France under Macron is what SA with history of racism should be concerned about
LAST month has been a brutal reminder of the legacy of European colonialism.
In Africa and North America two centuries later the emotional impact is as raw as if it happened yesterday. It remains steeped in colonial powers still struggling to come to terms with loss of empire and the devastation of hasty retreats!
Thanks to politics of denial, containment and a concerted effort not to monetise the consequences of colonialism, especially the “R” word – reparations – alongside an entrenched underbelly of institutionalised or hidden racism, recently on the back of a wave of right-wing populism in Europe, North and South America and Australasia, this legacy will continue to rear its ugly head.
As if Western leaders only learn selective lessons from history to suit their narrow electoral and economic interests.
First it was French President Emmanuel Macron, following the Summit on Financing African Economies held in Paris on May 18, waltzing through African capitals culminating in an indaba with President Cyril Ramaphosa on May 28, which was an orgy of bilateral aspirations as it was a mutual admiration exercise.
Two days earlier in Kigali, Macron asked for forgiveness for France’s role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which about 800 000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered. He admitted France had not heeded warnings of impending carnage and had “valued silence over examination of the truth”.
He could not bring himself to apologise for French abdication of responsibility, even after a commission had found that France did bear “heavy and
overwhelming responsibility” for the genocide.
On May 28 Germany acknowledged committing genocide during its colonial-era occupation of Namibia from 1904 to 1908 when its forces ethnically cleansed out over 80% of the Nama and Herero populations.
It took five years of “negotiations” to confirm this, albeit German Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, admitted Berlin bore “historical and moral responsibility” for the atrocities and would ask forgiveness from Namibia and the victims’ descendants. Germany rules out paying reparations, instead agreeing to pay €1.1 billion (R18.35bn)in “development” aid to the Namas and Hereros. Such are the blurred lines of the semantics of European colonial guilt.
A day later in British Columbia, Canada, a mass grave containing the remains of 215 indigenous school children was unearthed in what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted is a “painful reminder” of a “shameful chapter of our country’s history”.
Canada’s nefarious residential schools were compulsory boarding schools run by the state and churches during the 19th and 20th centuries with the aim of forcibly assimilating indigenous youth.
France under Macron is what South Africans with their history of Struggle
against apartheid and racism should be most concerned about. Macron cuts a dapper almost cherub-like persona. But he has an unsavoury underbelly bordering on chauvinism, hypocrisy and expediency. Of all the G7 leaders Macron is the most overtly Islamophobic, hiding behind a perceived jihadist threat, stooping to use opposition to the hijab and burka as a sop against the rise of extreme right Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in the race for the Elysee Palace in next year’s presidential elections.
Ramaphosa could have raised the issues of Islamophobia and corruption. Isn’t his predecessor Jacob Zuma currently on trial for corruption and bribery related to defence contracts involving French, British and Swedish contractors? Zuma allegedly received bribes from Thint, the local subsidiary of French arms firm Thales, via his adviser in order to protect the firm from scrutiny.
Macron’s transformation from fighting Le Pen’s quasi-fascism in 2017 to the “guardian” of French traditions and law and order is as calculating as it is self-serving.
France’s attitude to Muslims is steeped in its brutal colonialism in Francophone Africa, subsequent decolonisation in North Africa in the 1960s, particularly in Algeria, and the largescale migration that followed. France at 10 million has the highest Muslim minority in Europe.
It is also steeped in the misguided laïcité concept where the state declares “neutrality” to religion, and people are free to believe and practise any religion or none. France’s Algerian hangover coupled with laïcité has fuelled anti-Muslim sentiments ever since.
The ban on wearing conspicuous religious symbols, headscarves in state schools and face coverings in public spaces is implicit. In April, a group of semi-retired French generals, many Algeria veterans, defied the law by publishing a letter warning of civil war and accusing Macron of giving “concessions to Islamism”.
Laïcité hijacked women’s rights, civil liberties and freedom of speech, becoming a marker of French identity and for le vivre-ensemble – how French people can live together. Although it applies to all religions, the debate focuses on Muslim practices.
Jihadist terrorism has meant that French Muslims are under pressure to disavow the extremists or accept guilt by association with them.
Macron’s racist credentials also centre on his dog-whistle attacks on postcolonial studies, covering everything from anti-colonial thought and critical race theory to Black Lives Matter. Perhaps he is using racism and xenophobia, laced with a general anti-intellectual sentiment, to woo conservative voters in the 2022 election.
Islamophobia is also fuelled by a myth of freedom of speech. The Charlie Hebdo attack by militants in 2015 was abhorrent and inexcusable. For the owners and supporters to push the magazine, famed for lampooning religion, as the bastion of free speech is as nauseating as it is inaccurate.
Ask cartoonist Maurice Sinet, known as Siné. He was censored and sacked by Charlie Hebdo in 2008 for alleged “anti-Semitic elements” in his work. Siné won €40 000 for wrongful dismissal. It seems to be fine to insult the Prophet of Islam, but not the sensitivities of Jews. Similarly, France is the first country to outlaw “Holocaust Denial”. To many, it is the case of one law for Jews and another for Muslims.