meat and potatoes and religion

So to explain my neurotic title. I meant to include this blog post on my previous one and say “so moving on to the meat and potatoes of my post” but decided that this topic was just too important for me to tack on the end of my blah-blah updates and warrants a whole post that stands on its own.

Switzerland and its ban on minarets. Having stayed in Europe for a semester now, I can safely say that it’s not perfect. It might be very much more liberal and progressive in its policies than America, but not where Islam is concerned. Everyone knows that radical right-wing politicians are sweeping over Europe, with their racist Islamaphobia couched in saccharine “rights of the homogeneous natives” speeches. I’m proud to be in Sweden, where the right-wing parties haven’t been successful in capturing attention. That said, to borrow the words of the distasteful NMO, there’s a storm coming. & it’s ugly right-wing radicalism.

Max and I led a discussion in class yesterday on multiculturalism and I was both taken aback and pleasantly surprised to realize that the entire class of American students (save this one guy) was firmly in favor of tolerance, multicultural practices and the protection of minority rights. All of them believed that Muslim women should have the choice to wear the veil and religious practices should be allowed to flourish. They were strongly disgusted by Switzerland’s ban on minarets and very considerate of Islam as a whole. To think that we (the rest of the world) always feel so inclined to bash the Americans when they’ve proven to be nothing but educated and gracious (Palin-supporters notwithstanding). Osama Bin Laden would be disappointed to hear that terrorism has failed to incite hatred or a so-called clash of civilizations (oh huntington).

Someone brought up a great point in class. That Islam has been sensationalized to the point where we’ve tugged it to the forefront and placed it up against unfair standards. We don’t really talk about Orthodoz Jews wearing long skirts, or Christians wearing the crosses. It’s always the veil because Islam has been demonized to a point where it’s become the center of discussion. It’s a racialized attack on culture.

Also, it’s so easy to forget that for every honor killing, there’s a group of young Muslim men and women who form organizations resisting such practices. For every fundamentalist, there are my Muslim friends saying that the best way to punish a terrorist is to plonk them on the streets of Pakistan and let the people get at them because no one hates them more.

The Swiss ban on minarets is ridiculous and unfair. Unfortunately,we’re seeing such sentiments all over Europe, including wonderful Sweden where the right-wing party look poised to capture 5% of the vote and enter parliament. It’s a double standard. The Europeans have always prided themselves on being the beacon of liberalism and openness. This anti-Islamic attitude is narrow-minded and destructive because it merely incites resentment and anger.

That said, I’ll agree with Mona Eltahawy’s Washington Post piece that states that the Muslim world needs to look at its own restrictive practices if it wants the moral high ground to criticize Europe. Catholicism and Christianity are hardly tolerated in places like Saudi Arabia or god forbid, Iran. Even worse, discrimination occurs even among the different Muslim sects. Personally, I’d like to see them improve on female education, gender equality and the abolition of genital mutilation in Islamic Africa. I’d like to see Muslim immigrants try to integrate better into native societies. There are many things wrong with the Muslim world, but hey, there are many effed up things everywhere and we shouldn’t single Muslims out.

Sure, they need to change. But let’s not play a tit-for-tat childish game here Europe. Set an example!