Why France must remain on guard on political Islam
What has been said about political Islam in the French Senate. The article by Giuseppe Gagliano
On 4 February at the French Senate Youssef Chiheb , one of the leading scholars of political Islam as well as a member of the prestigious Center Français de recherche sur le renseignement (Cf2r) directed by Eric Denécé, underlined with extreme clarity and clarity what the dangerousness of 'Political Islam.
In the first place without many turns of phrase, Chiheb emphasized that the presence of political Islam in France represents a de facto threat to the values of the French Republic and that it is certainly an expanding ideology.
Secondly, part of its danger is represented by the fact that political Islam is compatible with all political systems but is not compatible with secularism.
Thirdly, democracy – given its porosity and tolerance – is a tool for political Islam to gain access to power and, even if it does not legitimize political violence, it does not condemn it either. In fact, let us not forget that political Islam uses proselytism, promotes entism, penetrates the intermediate bodies, co-opts emerging political leaders in universities, without condemning violent Islamist radicalization. In this regard, the presence of political Islam can be identified in the campuses located in the heart of areas in great difficulty (Villetaneuse, Bobigny, Créteil, Saint Denis, Nanterre, Saint Quentin en Yvelines…). As far as entism is concerned, this materializes in a certain Dress Code for girls and boys, in the introduction of elements of political or theological language in the Islamic or re-Islamized Arabic language, in customs such as Ramadan or even the clandestine use of classrooms. “Requisitioned” for collective prayers.
Among these practices, certainly the most dangerous for a secular Republic is the use of the jilbab or the hijab (black dress that covers the whole body, sometimes worn with gloves) which is unacceptable and even shocking for the French analyst. for the lay Muslim teacher.
On the other hand, political Islam not only represents the apex of certain ideologies such as Salafism, Wahhabism or Takfirism, but for this very reason it promotes communitarianism, identity but above all social segregation. In this sense, political Islam is a form of territorial separatism . It does not claim a territory, but the exercise of power over the territories in question. In fact in political Islam the conception of the Community (Al Umma) prevails, without physical borders, to the detriment of the nation-states delimited in time, space, history, language and culture.
Fourthly, political Islam is an ideology and a political program of government already tested and implemented in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and above all in Turkey, after the seizure of power by President Erdogan. Morocco, on the other hand, is an exception, despite the majority of the government being led by the Party for Justice and Development (PJD).
In this regard – as far as France is concerned – it would be necessary on the one hand to produce a peaceful scientific, political and social counter-discourse, far from any exploitation and on the other hand, on the political level, to be inspired by the Franco-Moroccan model of cooperation that it proved to be valid both in the co-management of the cult – through the training of imams within the Mohamed VI Institute – and through cooperation in judicial and intelligence matters in the context of the fight against terrorism.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/perche-la-francia-deve-restare-in-guardia-islam-politico/ on Wed, 10 Feb 2021 10:33:13 +0000.