Frenchness, faith and the presidential election

The second round of the French presidential election is due on 24 April, and the imperilled identity of the country is the one indisputable thing that a majority of French seem to agree on.

Both rival candidates, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, are controversial, especially when it comes to their relations with French Muslims. Who is perhaps worse is not entirely clear.

Two demagogues?

Marine Le Pen compared Muslims praying in the streets, with the German occupation of the country. Emmanuel Macron stigmatises Muslims and cracks down on those who raise their voices in opposition to this. In addition, who can forget his steadfast defence of offensive drawings of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed?

Worst of all for French Muslims could be Macron's goal to rewrite Islam to be more liberal and appropriate to his vision of France. He also made an effort to close the French Council of the Muslim Faith, dissatisfied with it and with any perceived foreign influence, including simply the international communion that exists between believers across the world.

Unfortunately, France should simply be considered hostile to Islam. Between the two presidential candidates, Macron might be the more insidious, trying to actively distort Islam and interfere in the freedom of conscience.

Le Pen, despite probably having a more negative reputation with Muslims (similar to Trump), is just old-fashioned rather than insidious. She would not likely try to interfere in and pervert other people's faith, even if her policies would be more directly confrontational with France’s Muslim community, with such absurd measures as fines for wearing headscarves. It is also noticeable that Macron is a zealous Israel-supporter, going as far as to label Israel critics as enemies of the Republic, a bizarre attack that strikes directly at the consciences of Muslims more than Le Pen has done.

Civilisation anxiety justified?

Regardless of the outcome of the presidential election, France will struggle to reconcile the consequences of its imperialism and its attempts to maintain a culturally uniform nation-state. This could eventually result in separatism and violence in decades to come.

France’s differences from Britain are that Britain is not a secular state, and Britain accepted its overseas people as distinct cultures, with little interest in assimilation, as there is no Britishness to assimilate into (all aspects of our identity, from food to flags and even the Union itself, are the cumulative imperial booty acquired by Norman conquerors, so there is no core Britishness to be anxious about, like the core Frenchness).

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Cancelling Islam won't help France

The prevailing reactionary and liberal camps within the Western liberal democratic model of state are equally incapable of accepting Muslims, and the best display of this failure is in France.

The French decision to close the French Council of the Muslim Faith because of perceived undue foreign influence reflects a desire to create an alternative Islam acceptable to Western liberals. What Western countries want is a local sedated, liberal-friendly Islam that is okay with cartoons of Islam's Prophet and supportive of Western wars on Muslims.

Macron's Islam

What Western countries would prefer to see is a completely reinvented Islam with an edited and redacted holy book, to support their interests and only attack China and Russia at the behest of Western diplomats. This is consistent with prevailing political sentiments in the West, which emphasise eliminating unacceptable views by cancelling them and are not interested, in the slightest, in how dear such views are to people from other civilisations.

We are seeing what will culminate in the complete failure to construct a multiconfessional state along liberal lines in the West, even as the West's population declines and migrants from other cultures become essential to economic performance. The requirement that it must be okay to offend culture and faith will never be able to coexist with being welcoming to people from other cultures, no matter what desperate policies are pursued by countries like France.

Countries that want to rectify other cultures when offended by them, yet at the same time wanting freedom for themselves to offend such cultures, are pursuing a doomed model. There is no example of any multiconfessional state in history that was both defiantly liberal and accommodated very different religious communities successfully.

Multiculturalism can work, but not with liberalism

Multiculturalism can succeed, but must be done within strict constraints that preserve the autonomy of the cultures concerned and treat them with the utmost respect. France's desire to assimilate and make sure that every cultural change comes at the expense of other cultures rather than France's is a mistake, when France was the colonial power and France made the decision to govern members of other cultures. That comes at a cost, and France must pay it by allowing its own character to change as a result.

Neo-colonial France's arrogant domestic policy against Muslims is matched by its arrogant foreign policy against Mali, demanding this country adhere to its political values and model, although the real goal is to exploit the country's gold and uranium. However, cancelling Islam and declaring cultural superiority won't help France escape the consequences of its own decision to become a multicultural empire.

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