Muslims to support secularism
Allal, Tewfik
"We are of Muslim culture. We oppose misogyny, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and the political use of Islam. We reassert a living secularism." ED. NOTE: Dissent does not usually publish manifestos,...
...In contrast, we believe that recognition of the existence of homosexuality and the freedom for homosexuals to live their own lives as they wish represent undeniable progress...
...Its ferocity is equaled only by its hypocrisy...
...Sexual Equality: A Prerequisite for Democracy We are firmly committed to equal rights for both sexes...
...DISSENT / Summer 2004 n 33...
...Despite our opposition to the current policies of the Israeli government, we refuse to feed primitive images of the "Jew...
...This Manifesto seems to have inaugurated a small movement, with several hundred signatories and a list of "Les Amis du Manifeste" (Friends of the Manifesto) composed of non-Muslim intellectuals expressing their solidarity...
...POLITICS ABROAD and fundamentalists), "being a man" means having power over women, including sexual power...
...There are not enough chaplaincies nor enough cemeteries...
...Some of us are believers, others are agnostics or atheists...
...Stopping Homophobia For Islamic fundamentalists (as for all machos *France has bilateral agreements with Algeria, which allow the application of Algeria's "Family Code" to emigrants in France...
...Consequently, "French-style" secularism has lost a great deal of value in the eyes of these young people...
...He went home and wrote this Manifesto in collaboration with his wife, Brigitte Bardet, a teacher and feminist activist...
...Even if the current enthusiasm for the head scarf [among some Muslims] in France was stimulated by discrimination suffered by immigrant children, this cannot be considered the real cause of the desire to wear it...
...We recognize Israel's right to exist, a right recognized by the PLO congress in Algiers in 1988 and the Arab League summit meeting in Beirut in 2002...
...One of the organizers of the demonstration on Saturday, January 17, 2004, in favor of the head scarf declared that "It is scandalous that those who claim to be shocked by the head scarf are not shocked by homosexuality...
...We shudder at what the triumph of these attitudes implies for "shameless" persons in society— like women who fail to wear the head scarf or homosexuals or non-believers...
...Readers can find the original French version of the Manifesto and the list of signatories at www.manifeste.org WE ARE women and men of Muslim culture...
...Behind this so-called "choice" demanded by a certain number of girls is the promotion of a political Islamic society based on a militant ideology which aims to promote actively values to which we do not subscribe...
...nor can memories of a North African lifestyle explain it...
...They can rediscover the strength of a real, living secularism...
...campaign of the Algerian women's associations, demanding the definitive abolition of 32 n DISSENT / Summer 2004 the two-decades-old family code...
...There is a lack of places to pray...
...20 years is enough...
...Allal attended one of the demonstrations last winter protesting the recent law banning the Muslim head scarf in French schools and was shocked at the political slogans being chanted by Muslim fundamentalists and their sympathizers...
...We all condemn firmly the declarations and acts of misogyny, homophobia, and anti-Semitism that we have heard and witnessed for a while now here in France and that are carried out in the name of Islam...
...In their eyes, any man who favors equality of the sexes is potentially subhuman, or "queer...
...These three characteristics typify the political Islamism that has been forceful for so long in several of our countries of origin...
...We see the use of the Israel-Palestine conflict by fundamentalist movements as a means of promoting the most disturbing forms of anti-Semitism...
...It was written by Tewfik Allal, an unemployed French proofreader and union activist who was born in Morocco of Algerian parents...
...Just like "shameless" women and homosexuals, Jews have become the target: "They have everything and we have nothing," was something that we heard in the demonstration on January 17...
...In various countries, we have seen violence or even death inflicted on female friends or family members because they refused to wear the scarf...
...Two possibilities lie before them...
...All monitoring bodies recognize this...
...Living Secularism Islam has not received sufficient recognition in France...
...that is, political action on behalf of their rights and to demand the social gains fought for by their fathers and mothers—who belonged to social classes, cultures, peoples, and nations before they belonged to Islam...
...Fighting Anti-Semitism Finally, we condemn firmly the anti-Semitic statements made recently in speeches in the name of Islam...
...This way of thinking has proliferated since the rise of political Islamism...
...It is also for this reason that we oppose wearing the Islamic head scarf, even if among us there are differing opinions about the law banning it from schools in France...
...Undoubtedly he thinks that a virtuous society hides women behind head scarves or puts homosexuals behind bars, something we have already seen happen in Egypt...
...NOTE: Dissent does not usually publish manifestos, but when we learned of the remarkable one below, we decided to make an exception...
...This only ends up securing unequal, repressive, and intolerant societies...
...We are aware that young French people, the sons and daughters of Muslim immigrants, are still held back socially and suffer discrimination...
...We fight the oppression of women who are subjected to Personal Status Laws, like those in Algeria (recent progress in Morocco highlights how far Algeria lags behind), and sometimes even in France via bilateral agreements.* We believe that democracy cannot exist without these equal rights...
...At the same time, we are committed to the Palestinian people and in support of their right to found a state and to be liberated from occupation...
...As long as an individual—heterosexual or homosexual— does not break the laws protecting minors, each person's sexual choices are his or her own business and do not concern the state in any way...
...EDS...
...Accordingly, we unambiguously offer our support for the "20 ans, barakat...
...This latter path cannot be ours...
...It particularly affects issues of divorce and discriminates against women...
...A real, historical conflict between two peoples should not be exploited...
...Or they can see themselves in an imaginary, virtual "umma" [Islamic community — Ens.] that no longer corresponds to reality, and then masquerade in republican or tiers-mondistes (third-worldist) rags...
...We fought against them there, and we are committed to fighting against them again—here...
Vol. 51 • July 2004 • No. 3
