Secularism has always been
a great controversy all over the world due to its effects on the religion.
Religious practices were against the separation of politics from the Church,
which happened in France in 1905. However, this separation was applied in all
the states without the approval of the church. The church wanted to remain
involved in the decision-making process, but the governors did not want to rule
the country with a religious constitution. French government thought they had
converted their country from a religious state into a secular country. But it
is not true; the country is still religiously biased. There are several factors
that indicate that they have not applied the proper secularism: First, there
are increasing numbers of attack on Muslim women who wear headscarves in
public. The government has no problem with Christian nuns and their religious
clothes. Second, secularism does not mean erasing all cultures other than
French culture. They ask the newcomers to shun their culture and language that
they have brought from outside of France.
However,
France has never been a secular state. They have only separated the church from
politics. Lebanon is a great example of secularism. There are Mosques and
Churches all over Lebanon as in France. However, expressing religion publicly
is not against the law, and wearing headscarves is legal in Lebanon.
Each
religion, race, and culture has its own traditional clothes. Muslim women wear
the headscarf, which is a piece of cloth that is rolled around the head to
cover their hair. Covering hair is an Islamic act, which is practiced to save
women’s privacy. Moreover, wearing a headscarf indicates that the woman
practices Islam. Regretfully, wearing this piece of cloth is forbidden in
France with the excuse of prohibiting the religious practice in public although
nuns can wear religious clothes publicly. Obviously, it is an anti-Islamic
movement led by the Prime Minister, Sarkozy. However, there are several points
against this logic. First, no one needs to be recognized by people so long as
he/she does not pose any threat to the national security. Also, covering hair
with a scarf does not hide the whole face. Second, there is an excuse against
Hijab that it hides face and makes it hard to recognize the woman behind it.
But this is a rather lame excuse because many people wear different types of
costumes every day often covering their whole body and face. For example,
entertainment actors wear the costumes of different Disneyland characters in
public so tourists take pictures with them for money. Those people should also
be charged with being covered. It is well-known that women have always been the
most soft-hearted; they are the weakest gender to hurt others. In brief, women
have a low crime rate around the world, and a mere piece of cloth cannot be a
dangerous thing. But, in France, women who practice Islam are considered
criminals.
France
pretends to be a secular state by not showing its support to any religion in
public. However, Christianity enjoys privilege over other religions. This
became clear after Pairs shooting when a group of men pretending to be the real
Muslims killed the workers of Charlie Hebdo magazine, which had allegedly drawn
the caricature of the prophet Mohammed. The French government led a huge
campaign against Islam due to the false claim that the terrorists were Muslim.
If they were Muslim, they must have been Muslim by the name only and did not
practice the real Islam, which strongly prohibits the killing of innocent
people. But, the worst of all, Islam was blamed. As a result, there were none
to mention Ahmad Merahbet, a Muslim officer who was also killed in the
terrorist attack. Merahbet was killed while defending the so-called secular
state. But, mentioning him might cause people to think about the great features
that Islam has to offer to the non-Muslims: Islam provides defense for the
non-Muslims if they are in danger and help at times of need. Also, if a
religion is to be blamed for the actions by its followers, then Christianity should
be blamed for the action of George W. Bush taken for Iraq. According to John
Tirman in his article IN THE BUSH PRESIDENCY: HOW MANY DIED? Between 800,000 – 1,3 million people died in
Iraq from 2006 until 2009. Although it is a huge number the Christians cannot
be blamed for it. Because it is an individual act and cannot be generalized.
Muslim
workers have contributed a lot in building France but they are always offered
the lowest wage. But, it is a matter of great regret that the French government
always ascribes terrorist attacks to all Muslims of France in general although
they, except a few, are peaceful and pose no threat to others. Muslims of
France are mostly emigrants from Algeria and Morocco. They had left their
countries in order to achieve their goals in another country. They do not want
anything else except living and being treated like humans. However, they are
not living peacefully due to the Islamophobia that the French government
spreads all over the country. Being hated in a foreign country and abandoning
Muslims’ attribution to French is not an act of secularism; rather it is an act
of age before the enlightenment period. Although France strongly benefits from
Muslims its government has always trying to reduce the Islamic influence on the
country. It is like enslaving Muslim workers in the 21st century. There need
has not finished; France still needs them in a variety of jobs.
It
is hard to get the French citizenship – it is not all about the paper works but
it is about being French. France has the right to modify its rules regarding
application for citizenship, but it has no right to ask the applicants to shun
their own culture and language. Moreover, the applicants must forget their old
traditions and adopt the French traditions. Does that mean secularism? The
answer is no, it does not; because secularism is not about assimilating other
cultures to into a single state culture. There is no sign of secularism in such
action. All groups of people should equally enjoy the freedom of practicing and
applying any religion or tradition in their respective lives without being in
danger of criminal charges. This can be compared to the systems of North Korea,
where people must surrender their heritage and live in humiliation. The North
Korean government might have the same effects on people as the French
government has on the immigrants. The immigrants of France will always be
called immigrants and be the lowest class in the Social Strata.
In
the last couple of century, France colonized a huge number of African
countries, for example, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi etc. These countries always
come first on the list of poor countries. France used to feed itself by using
resources collected from the African countries. It is known that Africa is rich
in natural resources, for example, salt, gold, and diamonds. France has ruled
the African countries and led them to starvation. Millions of people died in
those countries during the French ruler. France never puts any effort to save
the people in Africa. As soon as France had left Africa, people started to move
to France for a better life. Surprisingly enough, the French government had
forbidden the African movement to France although the country was built with
the sweat of those African people, and started to fight them back. That is what
the French government is known for; it only knows how to receive but not to
give back. In addition, France never helped the former colonies with neither
food nor money. According to the UNICEF, about 5500 children die every day in
Africa. On the contrary, the life expectancy of the French has risen to 85
years.
In
conclusion, France is pretending to be a secular state but it is not. She is
strongly against Islam and favor of Christianity although secularism does not
mean to be biased too, or against any religion. The government tries to present
Islam to the people as if it encourages its practitioners to kill others.
Charlie Hebdo was the incident when the French government took the opportunity
to attack Islam because the terrorists were so-called Muslims. They were not
Muslims in the true sense but they attached themselves to Islam. France asks
all who seek her citizenship to leave their own cultural or religious identity
and become the French in one hand, she makes the other identity bigger when
things are not happened as to their expectation in the other hand.