Controversies concerning Islam are becoming more frequent and more public in countries all across Europe. The success of Geert Wilders in the recent Dutch elections, the Swiss minaret ban, the rise of the EDL in Britain, the movement in several countries to ban the burqa, the issue of new mega-mosques, such as the one in Marseilles — all of these issues highlight the clash between Islam and traditional European civilization.
Countries with secularism written into their constitutions encounter a problem with any official effort to oppose Islamization. How can Islam be stopped as long as the state is enjoined not to interfere in religious affairs? In particular, the constitutions of France and the United States forbid any state meddling with religions. We Americans have the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, and the French have an official policy of laïcité — the complete removal of religious matters from the purview of the government.
A French writer who blogs under the nom de plume “Gandalf” at Vérité, Valeurs et Démocratie recently founded the Alliance to STOP Sharia. The Alliance is completely unconcerned with Islamic religious beliefs — as far as it is concerned, Muslims may believe whatever they want. Instead, the focus is on Sharia, or Islamic law.
Below is the first installment of a four-part interview with Gandalf about the strategy behind the Alliance to STOP Sharia.
Q: You say that you do not take issue with Islamic beliefs or religious doctrines, but only with the body of law known as Sharia. Could you please explain the reasons for your focus on Sharia?
A: Well, let’s begin with Islamic beliefs and religious doctrines. We cannot take issue with someone’s beliefs for the simple reason that we are respectful of their human rights. In a democratic society you have the right to believe what you want; it’s as simple as that. Let me add that having issues with what’s inside your neighbour’s brain seems a very unproductive way of spending your time.
Sharia is an entirely different matter, Sharia in an occidental society is of a political nature (politics being the thing that rules society). In a Muslim society Sharia is of religious essence but we are not in a Muslim society, and we don’t have to consider their weltanschaaung in this matter.
Some people pretend to introduce something they consider as a body of laws into our society. Laws regulating individual and collective behaviour, morals, clothing, food, justice, matrimonial relations, sexual life, inheritance, citizenship status, and even what you are allowed to believe or not believe. Laws voted by nobody, laws absolutely incompatible with the principles of democracy, laws violating each and every human right you can think of, laws rejecting our basic civilisational concept of human dignity, and you ask why we focus our concerns on the Sharia?
Let me return your question by asking this: why hasn’t everyone in our democratic countries focused yet on the Sharia problem we are facing today?
Some clever souls say that it only concerns Muslim people, why should we care?
What is a Muslim? A new kind of citizen having different rights and obligations? A new kind of citizen denied the benefits of his constitutional rights, of his basic human rights — especially if this Muslim person is a woman?
We don’t know what a Muslim is, and to be really honest, we don’t care. But we know what a free citizen is and we know what Sharia does to people: it enslaves them in a degrading servitude. Sharia is mental slavery, that’s why we take issue with it.
Tomorrow: Part 2.
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