Islam in France, Laïcité, and the Challenge of Radicalism

KAUMMUSLIM.COM - Each country has its own challenges. The challenge can exist based on any sector: politics, demographics, international relations, economics, ideology, or religion. Not only challenges, often countries are obliged to struggle with using paradoxes and irony at the same time. France is one of them.

We know, France is the most multicultural country in Europe. He was not only inhabited by the Caucasian clear skinners, but there were also a variety of races, tribes, and beliefs . The easiest example, we can see the composition of the national football team.

Although known as a developed country, France is not automatically far from focusing matters. In fact, there is one national problem that is familiar to our ears, namely the radicalism of beliefs . The country of fashion turns out to have almost like a case with our country which is not in these very modes.

Alkisah, in the late 1960s to 1970s, France as a destination for large-scale immigration of Africans & Arabs. That was the time when Islam, the belief that became the identity of the immigrants, began to massively enter France. Until recently, France has transformed as a country using the largest number of Muslims in Europe, even the Western world.

Islam is the 2nd largest religion after Christian-Catholicism there. The total Muslim population in France has reached five,720,000 in 2017, or approximately 8.8% according to the total population. Of those millions of Muslim populations, most are based on maghribi countries such as Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.

Regarding Islam, in Indonesia perhaps we have a case of majoritarianism that focuses. This is enjoyed by many of its people & supported by the state through its policies &agencies. In France it seems out of sync. First, because Islam is not a religion in general, it is ruled there, even though the numbers are disproportionate. Second, France is a secular country. He has a more extreme concept of secularism than, say, Alaihi Salam & Uk. They call it: laïcité.

In the past, France had indeed merged the state using religion -in this case the authority of the church. But since the country officially seceded on the basis of religion in 1905, the laïcité worked decisively. This concept of secularism even emphasizes that the French state does not recognize, finance, and subsidize any religious institutions. Laïcité also forbids symbols of trust to be present in public spaces.

Although there are some advantages according to laïcité, it is almost impossible to say laïcité is fine. Various upheavals, debates, and problems exist one by one as a result of the implementation of this system.

Call it a school catering in the city of Chilly-Mazarin, France. They do not provide non-pig culinary options for their students who are Muslim & Jewish. Jean-Paul Beneytou, by the mayor, insisted that it was commonplace to maintain public sector "neutrality."

In Publier, a small town in eastern France, a statue of Our Lady was taken down by court order because it was placed in a public space. On another issue, there is a ban on the wearing of burkinis – swimming clothing covering the body – for Muslim women who are in generic pools or beaches.

Of the various incidents, of course, the protests cannot be contained. On social media, many netizens have criticized. The delivery of aspirations is also not a few channeled by residents by taking to the streets. Their protests gave rise to a synthesis, which was to use the clash of state-religious separation on the one hand & violation of the basic rights of people to belief on the other.

The irony of laïcité hasn't stopped there. As we alluded to at the beginning, France also has a serious problem using the radicalism of beliefs . The basis is actually the same: the consequences according to this secularism.

We must not forget, on the night of November 13, 2015, the city of Paris was shaken by a violent terrorist attack. A series of attacks -mass shootings, suicide bombings, > hostage--it brought many casualties. The French mourned. The whole global condemned.

In the aftermath of the Parisian aggression, French authorities first closed three mosques with radical Islamic ideology. The mosques are located in Lagny-sur-Marne, Lyon, and Gennevilliers.

A year later, French authorities reported that 120 of the 2,500 mosques there made salafist ideas, & 20 of them were closed for indulgence in hate speech. A similar reason was applied by the government to Grenoble to close the Al-Kawthar mosque for six months.

These closures are deemed necessary for the government, given their dangerous impact. Often in his sermons, imams in French mosques are known to legitimize armed jihad, violence, and hatred of followers of other faiths.

Kamel Daoud, an Algerian novelist, has written a critique of france's incessant importation of Imams outside. In his article titled France Has Millions of Muslims. Why Does It Import Imams?, he –in a mocking tone– explains the paradox experienced by the French in dealing with radicalism.

The reason is that the Muslim community in France only relies on internal self-help to build mosques or send prospective imams to school. There are no donations based on public funds or state forums at all. This, to an exclusive level, requires them to rely on the assistance of Islamic states outside France such as Algeria, Morocco, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia.

Those countries are indeed willing to give relief funds, or even send priests to France. But actually those aids are not without price. Algeria is capable of having a mission to restore the stability of its country, Saudi Arabia is resulting in this proselytizing mission as a subtle ideological force, while Turkey seems to be investing in maintaining a religious lobby abroad.

But what's more worrying about it is all Islam in France as vulnerable to radicalism. We can see that the French government is currently stuck in an opponent of principles. On the one hand, the state inevitably has to intervene in interfering in religious affairs. On the other hand, if the state remains idealistic using its principles, then national security is at stake.

Regarding whatever the decision is, let's leave it to the authorities of the country. But I'm a little surprised, if only President Macron had raised this issue with President Jokowi during a meeting at the G20 summit in Japan yesterday, perhaps Jokowi could have proposed sending moderate imams from NU or Muhammadiyah, two Islamic organizations that had just been nominated as Nobel Peace Laureates. Yes, who understands it, right?

Mohammad Pandu, the author is a connoisseur of Islamic studies in Europe.