Anti-Muslim racism and Muslim racism. What the CSIS study Anti-Muslim racism in Switzerland rightly highlights and what remains to be said on the question of racism specific to Islam.

Commissioned by the Swiss Service for Combating Racism, the Centre suisse islam et société (CSIS) has carried out a “benchmark” sociological study documenting the racism experienced by some Muslims in Switzerland. As there are no racist laws in Switzerland, CSIS based its study on the testimonies and experiences of people who claim to be victims of racism and discrimination because they belong to the Muslim religion.

Read the CSIS study : Anti-Muslim racism in Switzerland

See also: Living together with Islam

A few details

To qualify this experience, its authors use the expression “anti-Muslim racism”. But why “racism” if Islam is not a “race”? Because, as Etienne Balibar, quoted in the study, points out:

Ideologically, today’s racism (…) is part of a ‘raceless racism’ (…): a racism whose dominant theme is notbiological heredity, but theirreducibility of cultural differences; a racism which, on the face of it, does not postulate the superiority of certain groups or peoples over others, but ‘only’ the harmfulness of erasing borders, the incompatibility of lifestyles and traditions.”

The problem of “anti-Muslim racism” is therefore a cultural one. It consists in seeing any Muslim person as a member of a homogeneous group characterized, among other things, by homophobia, sexism, anti-Semitism, an inability to inform oneself, resistance to democracy or the potential use of violence. From an ethical point of view, this way of looking at Muslims is problematic and justifies calling on the population to examine its “prejudices” against them.

The authors of the study also point out that :

Criticism of the religious doctrines of Islam, of the behavior of people who define themselves as Muslims, of Muslim organizations, societies and states is undoubtedly legitimate. However, criticism can take problematic forms. Excessive focus on Muslims and Islam is a first indication of unjustified criticism (emphasis added).

Echoing this study of anti-Muslim racism in Switzerland, we would like to emphasize in the remainder of this article that there is an anti-creedal racism in Islam. anti-secret racism. To our knowledge, the Swiss Federal Service for Combating Racism has never commissioned CSIS to produce a “reference study” on the subject. Yet such a study would call everyone to account. Indeed, the “racism” of some Swiss could be, in part, a reaction to the anti-secretive racism of Islam. It would therefore be up to each and every one of us to become aware of our own prejudices and assess their relevance.

Islamic teachings about “unbelievers

the Koran makes much of those it calls “unbelievers”. It refers to them, without qualification, as “the worst of creatures”.¹ and calls down upon them contempt and the harshest treatment, even combat to the death.².

About the dehumanization of “miscreants”, see this video.

Listen also to this Saudi sheikh’s talk given in May 2015. In it, he presents the fight against unbelievers (jihad) as a religious obligation for every “faithful” Muslim.

Differences between anti-Muslim racism and Muslim racism

In this study, the CSIS does not address – will it ever? – a fundamental difference between racism against Muslims in Switzerland and racism against non-Muslims on the part of Islam. While racist discrimination against Muslims may exist in Switzerland, it is not institutionalized by the country’s legislation. For example, the law does not prohibit the hiring of Muslims on the grounds of their religion. In the case of Switzerland, racism is the work of isolated individuals speaking or acting on their own behalf. Their behavior cannot therefore be generalized to the entire population, and it is not all Muslims who feel they are victims of racism in Switzerland.

On the other hand, CSIS overlooks a fundamental element in the studies it carries out: the fact that the legislation of Muslim countries all contains discriminatory and racist laws. And these laws, in direct application of the Koran, acquire an institutional character in the legislation of even the most moderate Muslim countries.

Sharia laws have extra-territorial application

Because they are religious in nature, these laws apply wherever Muslims live, at home or abroad. Consular authorities require their nationals who have emigrated to Switzerland to abide by the laws of their country of origin, even if they have obtained Swiss nationality. For example, a consulate may refuse to recognize the marriage of a woman from a Muslim country to a “miscreant”: it considers her a prostitute. The same authorities may refuse to recognize the filiation rights of an adopted child on the grounds that Islam forbids adoption. So, in Switzerland, people from Muslim countries, even binationals, are still subject to these discriminatory and infamous laws.

Listen to the testimony of this Moroccan woman married to a Swiss man

See also the pdf document Pièces à fournir aux autorités pour se marier (French only)

Examples of Muslim racism

It should be remembered that the European Council for Fatwa and ResearchSharia includes all aspects of life and worship. It includes personal status, economic aspects and crimes, in addition to decisions on peace and war. It also legislates on matters concerning the country and its inhabitants, as well as foreigners and their countries.

Among the Sharia laws that mosques teach their members in Switzerland, here are a few that are clearly discriminatory.

1. Lack of religious freedom

Sharia law condemns all criticism of Islam and apostasy (a sentence of imprisonment or death for anyone who discredits Islam and its Prophet, or leaves Islam by justifying his or her abandonment…).

2. Dehumanization of non-Muslims (see video examples of preaching)

3. Incitement to hatred and violence, including terrorism

4. Oppression of women and lack of gender equality

• Marriage (no marriage with a non-Muslim unless he or she converts)
• Repudiation (by saying “I repudiate you” three times, a man can get an imam to annul his marriage)
• Presence of a male guardian (without one, a woman is not free to marry in many Muslim countries, although in some countries, such as Morocco, a woman of full age can marry without a guardian).
• Polygamy
• Marriage of minors. (even before puberty, a girl can be married)
• Inheritance. (the wife inherits half of her brother’s inheritance)
• Islamic veil (reminds women that their entire body is indecent and an occasion of temptation and fall for men)

5. Discrimination and stigmatization of children born out of wedlock

6. Discrimination and persecution of homosexuals

7. Discrimination and persecution of religious minorities

Read also: Wearing the veil, my freedom!

Ideological discourse rather than scientific study?

In view of these facts, we are justified in questioning the CSIS’s general approach. Benefiting from the leniency of the Service de lutte contre le racisme, this center is able to ignore Islamic teachings that run counter to Swiss law and values. In so doing, it acts more as a promoter than an informed critic of Islam. As a “university center”, it does not submit to the principle of objective examination of its subject and becomes, de facto, an ideological instrument. Implicitly, it aims to put the most retrograde doctrines of Islam beyond the reach of criticism, in order to maintain the illusion that its social project is perfectly compatible with our own. And the lure works very well, since the Swiss Confederation continues to fund it.

Notes