-
Islam, Muslims and the West: Religion and Secularism. From Polarization to Negotiation
- Leuven University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
113 ISLAM, MUSLIMS AND THE WEST: RELIGION AND SECULARISM FROM POLARIZATION TO NEGOTIATION Nasr Abu Zayd Introduction Since the French president announced on December 16, 2003 the necessity to introduce a new law in order to prohibit religious symbols, such as the Jewish yarmulke, the big crosses and the female Muslim headscarf, hijâb, to be shown in the national French schools, the reaction generated all over the Muslim World, especially in the Arab World, presents the model of the polemic controversy/dispute/debate/ discussion that has been overshadowing the relationship between the Muslim World and the Western World since the late eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. The issue at steak here, from the French view, is the issue of protecting the secular basis of the French society against possible threat of disintegration if the religious symbols are shown in public schools. Religious symbols in the shared public sphere of schools would identify pupils according to their religious affiliation, thus causing a serious threat to their national identity as French citizens. In order to safeguard the national French identity and to enhance the process of integration religious symbols should be prohibited from being shown in public schools. For the MuslimWorld, as represented by the `ulama, in reaction to the French presidents’ announcement, hijâb is, unlike crosses or yarmulke, not a religious symbol; it is rather an obligatory religious requirement ordained by God and his Prophet. If a Muslim woman fails to wear the hijâb, she is considered a sinner and disobedient to the divine demand, and punishment in the life-after will be inflicted on her. Preventing Muslim girls by law from wearing the hijâb thus represents a Western enmity against Islam and discrimination against Muslims. Following all the articles published in Arabic newspapers dealing with the subject and watching some of the TV programs discussing the issue on some Arab satellites one can easily get the impression that the French move presents a severe threat to the identity of Muslims, not only in France but in the whole Muslim World and to the entire Muslim Nation, umma, as well. 114 Nasr Abu Zayd The rector of al-Azhar in Egypt, the oldest and most influential Muslim institution in the Sunni World, tried to take a seemingly moderate position after a meeting with the French minister of interior. In the press conference following the meeting the rector of al-Azhar gave his statement: first, he declared that Islam is based on justice, which means rights are to be given to the appropriate persons, groups, or nations etc. Secondly, he explicitly pronounced the fact that the hijâb is a religious obligation for every Muslim woman who will be judged if she fails to perform such an obligation. Thirdly, he pronounced the right of every state to make its own laws in accordance with its own political ideology and the duty of the Muslim citizens of that State is to obey the law. Muslim women in France should, therefore, obey the French law concerning the prohibition of wearing hijâb in public schools. This permission is based on the principle of ‘necessity’ as deduced from the Qur’ân (ch. 2, v. 173). By such a way rights are given to all. The shaykh, whose official title is the ‘grand imam’, became a victim of his moderate position, giving the French State its right to organize its society in one hand, and giving French Muslim women a way out by applying the principle of ‘necessity’ to their situation. The majority of the `ulama in theArab World explicitly condemned the sheikh’s opinion, some went even further and declared the apostasy of the grand imam. If the issue at stake for the French authority is to safeguard the secular nature of the state, the issue at stake for Muslims is, first, to protect the Islamic identity of the French Muslim citizens, and, secondly and more essentially, is to defend Islam against secularism, which happened to be seen as anti-religion ideology. The French secular ideology, according to the most dominant and deeply established Muslim perspective, emerged initially as a protest against the Church’s oppression of reason, rationality, scientific progress, and Enlightenment, but it gradually developed an anti-religion ideology. Secularism is, therefore, a Western European phenomenon with which Islam has nothing to do. If Christianity is basically making clear distinction between Cesar and God, preserving for each his own rights, so Muslims would argue, the distinction...