This is my message to the Muslims who live in France. Before I say more let me acknowledge how little I know the immigrant experience, having never had to leave my own country. I do live in a multicultural country, Canada, where ethnic and religious diversity are taken for granted. I have also had the pleasure of working with and knowing as friends many people who have moved to my country as immigrants. I would also like to say one more thing here: Canada does multiculturalism very differently from France or other European countries and I would also dare to boast that we do it a lot better.
It isn't always easy and we don't always get it right but generally speaking newcomers feel welcome here and almost always integrate well without having to sacrifice their cultural identity. This might be because here in Canada we love novelty and generally feel enriched by foreign cultural input. We are not all this generous and particularly many of our older, white, male and less educated (which is to say conservative) compatriots still have a marked tendency towards racism and bigotry.
I understand that French society does not easily accommodate diversity and what a disadvantage this must be for you. To imagine immigrating to a wealthy nation to work and actually earn a decent income and actually enjoy fundamental human rights and freedoms only to go on being treated like an outsider, like someone who never will belong for simply not being "French" with no guarantee that it will be any better for your children or grandchildren. Is it any wonder that you end up creating for yourselves two very distinct and separate realities, coexisting and only acknowledging the other's existence because your survival in this country depends on it.
As much as I sympathize, I am going to tell you something that you are not going to want to hear. You have to learn to integrate. Not assimilate, and not to lose your ethnicity nor your religious faith, but to do everything in your power to compromise a little and accommodate your hosts. In
Canada we have the good fortune of being a society that makes lots of accommodation for newcomers. We do not have to do this but if we want to build a healthy and sustainable society that will benefit everyone then we have to do this and for that reason. Because your French compatriots are not pulling their share then you, the Muslim minority, must do all the more to meet them halfway. Of course this isn't fair but such is life. What are you prepared to do, short of resorting to drastic or destructive actions, to help make life more fair for yourselves and for the French majority? It has to work both ways.
Perhaps in France there are a number of progressive and generous folks who are already working to bridge the divide and are reaching out in friendship to their Muslim neighbours. Build on this. For the rest of you, make every possible effort to learn and speak well the French language. Practice in your homes, with each other. You can still speak Arabic. It is both and, not either or. As a Christian I know how awful it is when ignorant non-believers insult my faith. As much as I deplore the massacres and murders of French and Danish cartoonists I also understand why this blatant disrespect of Mohammed would be such an outrage to you. I also appreciate the absolute discomfort of those Muslim women who want the dignity of their bodies and faces to be upheld and to not feel at the mercy of the male gaze. Here in Vancouver, where I live, some Muslim women wear the hijab, a few are veiled. Whatever I might think of it, I respect this as their right to dress and express themselves in a way that works for them. I only wish that more people in France (hey, even in my dear Canada!) would simply live and let live about the hijab, the niqab and the veil.
By the same token, I also question the absolute necessity of using external props, such as veils and head scarfs, as an essential expression of religious faith. In my city I recall seeing on the bus a young Muslim woman wearing the hijab. She was seated in the front in the courtesy section for seniors and people with disabilities, and she was totally focused on her laptop. There were seniors standing nearby, who clearly needed the seat more than her. I was standing at the time, or else I would have gladly given up my seat. No matter what I tried to do to get her attention she completely ignored me. I have little doubt that she knew what was going on. Here she was, boasting with the hijab that she was a faithful Muslim, yet completely disregarding the ethic of Islam about caring for the vulnerable. Or perhaps she assumed we were all infidels and not worth the effort?
I am basically saying to you Muslims the same thing that I am telling French society: Get over yourselves. Look for ways to compromise and try to co-exist. For those of you who must take your religion to an extreme, perhaps you need to reconsider and study other, more moderate forms of Islam that emphasize charity and justice over headscarves and veils. France is not, nor ever will be an Islamic country. If you have to live in a society where Islam is the state religion then perhaps you ought to consider going back to where you came from? But that would be a step backward and a huge loss to yourselves and to the French nation. Look for ways to compromise and learn how to internalize your faith so that it becomes a vehicle for the common good instead of a weapon of division.
No comments:
Post a Comment