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ISIS and the travails of French Secularism
Highlights
The year that began with attacks on Charlie Hebdo January 2015 were dubbed Paris attacks and one wished that the phrase-linking the French capital with political violence- did not get utilized ever again much less within the year.
The year that began with attacks on Charlie Hebdo January 2015 were dubbed Paris attacks and one wished that the phrase-linking the French capital with political violence- did not get utilized ever again much less within the year.
The Paris attacks of November 13, 2015 which took 129 lives are spoken of metonymically as affecting all of Europe but deep down, it is a result of what is unique to France as well. The French president stated immediately after the attacks that help was rendered to the attackers from inside. This throws the spotlight once again on the Muslim minority in Paris as well as France that is embattled, disgruntled and disaffected and seen as vulnerable to radicalization.
In fact, people joining the ranks of militant Islamists from France are higher than any other country from Europe. Two factors have colluded in contriving such a tragedy. Firstly, the French version of secularism and secondly, the past that rakes up the present with reference to France, ISIS and Western Asia.
French Laicism
In addition to the French tripartite motto of liberty, equality and fraternity, a fourth motto that goes unspoken but very much hinging the French Republic is that of secularism or ‘laicite’ which has a pronouncedly militant tinge to it.
Although secularism as an ideology is held dear to, it works at a very sophisticated way in which Christianity and ‘Frenchness’ are so culturally fused that it will be surprising if one does not expect that to be the case after close interactions between the two for almost a millennium.
Historically speaking, Secularism in France in particular and Europe in general arose out of an interaction with its homogenous populations unlike countries such as India where the population is tantalizingly heterogeneous. To thus claim deepsecularity with religiosity cultivates a deep animus among groups that see the state not only as a secular agent but as a deeply camouflaged attempt at Christian perpetuation.It bespeaks of a conundrum that lies at the heart of the French Republic that is very much unsettled and unfinished. It is an attempt that seeks to build ties of solidarity yet one that devolves into particularism.
Geopolitical Quicksand
ISIS is not only a terrorist organization but a transnational religious movement as well specializing in inducing as well as perpetuating terror. The refugee flow into France may or may not have aided the Paris attackers but what it certainly did was to materialize that possibility sooner.
ISIS sees itself as a champion of crusading against crusaders and equates the West with a den of all possible iniquities. It bestows itself as the moral protagonist by claiming that its fight against Western religion, debauchery, imperialism and colonialism are by themselves noble and laudable pursuits. ISIS also justified its attacks on the Paris capital on the basis of French involvement and bombings in Syria as well as North Africa. However, it is in its interests that West continues to engage itself in Syria and Western Asia which for many policymakers is tantamount to geopolitical quicksand. It would want Western players to engage themselves with vigor in Syria for the simple reason that it needs to exist.
The existence of ISIS as an idea as well as a material manifestation are deeply contingent on Western involvement and presence in Syria in particular and Western Asia at large. ISIS thrives on the fact that the West cannot possibly extricate itself from the Middle East. Its rhetoric, discourse and undertakings are explicably but inextricably linked to the West. This symbiotic nature of the phenomena is what feeds into its image making and existence.
Thus arises another conundrum for the French state. How to engage with any possible disengagement? On one hand, its sore experiences from the Algerian civil war and norms at the international level allowed for it to disengage from any imperial or triumphal overtures in Western Asia. At the same time, as a core European player and active member of the global comity of nations and due to contextual exigencies of being a victim of terror, it cannot but respondand involve further in Western Asia which may be seen as colonial hangover and worse get utilized by ISIS to further its anti-western diatribes coupled with recruitment from disaffected and disgruntled communities.
These two aspects- that of French secularity with religiosity on one hand and the conundrum of disengaging from a region that calls for engagement are not disconnected. Polarization is a threat the France needs to tackle in the coming days domestically and staying clear of any further deep involvement in Syria and Western Asia without knee jerk policy responses is another at the international level.
The Role of Islam
At many levels, media as well as individual, a familiar trope that rose its head once again was – Is Islam a religion of violence or peace? A presupposition that hinges such a question is that Islam as a religion is monolithic, having an unchanging character and is suspended in limbo at birth. Stasis, by this narrative is what afflicts Islam. Likewise, any attempt at suggesting ISIS as not Islamic is suggestive of the idea that a puritan version of the religion exists manifesting itself only in selective historical epochs which is understandably problematic again.
Islam as a religion has harbored violence now as diligently as it did with dissemination of knowledge and translation of texts in the Middle Ages. Maybe, modernity is the culprit here which has a marvelous ability to twist all that comes into contact with it.These are not simple questions and as such do not merit simple answers but nevertheless be dealt with.
By Nagothu Naresh Kumar
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