UAE- French national identity should give more space to Muslims: paper

ABU DHABI 19th November 2015 (WAM) -- A UAE paper has said that the world is in shock after a terrorist attack on France killed 129 people of different nationalities and religions Leaders including President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan were quick to denounce the attack and the attempt to associate it with Islam.

"Internally nonetheless France needs to fortify itself against attempts to further alienate its Muslim population. France has one of the largest Muslims population in Europe according to a Pew survey putting them at 7.5% of the population with about 5 million Muslims" said Khaleej Times in an editorial on Thursday.

"The number of Muslims in the country has been a source of social friction. The social and religious aspects of this friction creates more division and underlying tensions are brought to the fore in these violent times.

"French citizens of Algerian descent continue to feel like second class citizens though the majority of about 4 million of Algerian descent are children of Algerians who fought with the French army. French migrant communities a majority of who are of Muslim and of Arab descent have often been portrayed by populist rightwing politicians like Marine Le Pen and Nicolas Sarkozy as France's "enemy within".

"France's Muslim population has also been called the "population that leads us around by the nose [and] which destroys our country" by French actress Brigitte Bardot. Bardot's animal rights position on slaughtering sheep for Eid Al Adha galvanised the rightwing against Muslims in particular. This led to projecting Muslims as "anti-secular" and therefore a threat to the national identity of the French Republic. It is rather alarming to see how this religious insecurity has led to political agendas dictated by the far right and finally to legislation.

"The French law 2004-228 of 15th March 2004 otherwise known as the Law on Secularity and Conspicuous Religious Symbols in Schools was a formal step of making this social friction between political parties into a tussle with the French State. The law antagonised the French Muslim population as it stigmatised the wearer of a headscarf as threat to the secular foundations of the French Republic.

"The law is supposed to defend secularism. But the truth is this: it is not secular. The law and other decisions such as a French court ruling in 2008 denying a Moroccan woman French nationality on the grounds that her veil and her submissiveness to her husband shows the state was biased against Muslims when it had to defend their rights and their freedom to choose their way of life "Right wing efforts to maintain the ideal of "the oneness the sameness of all individuals" has alienated a 10th of its population and cornered them into an identity struggle. Laws such as 2004-228 have only targeted French citizens based on their religion.

"The coverage of an incident where a Muslim mother and her 9-year-old son who were banned from entering an amusement site on a beach because she was wearing a hijab in May 2015 was soon dwarfed by another attack that happened in Reims in July. Social media reactions to the attack clearly considered it religious even though police confirmed it was not religiously motivated.

"In a recent workshop organised by "b'huth" on dealing with Daesh returnees the participants spoke of social isolation of Muslims in France as the main reason why Daesh is able to recruit French citizens.

"The terror group is hoping to exploit this division between the two communities. That's why they decided to attack France and not Russia or Iran" concluded the Dubai-based daily.

Daesh is trying to increase tensions in France to spark clashes between Christians and Muslims. It is doing all it can to convince the Muslims in France that they are facing an 'identity threat' from the state. Such threats are usually existential. But angry reactions from the French against the Muslims can make that threat real.

As the world mourns with France and we show solidarity with the French it would be wise for the French government to do more to protect and include the Muslim population.

The UAE hosts 200 nationalities. Its nationals constitute less than a fifth of the population but our country has shown social cohesion is possible. This is the first line of defense against terrorism.

It is hoped that France finds an opportunity in the current events to make its national identity less exclusive.