No matter whether in Paris, Hamburg or Brussels: shouts at demonstrations by Islamist groups must be interpreted clearly. “Allahu akbar!” they shout from their megaphones or from the stages, they shout warnings to Western societies that one should be careful about criticizing Islam, because it will soon be the dominant teaching in Europe too. At peaceful LGBTQ+ community events, they throw bottles, spit on rainbow hearts, and mock volunteers. Attacks against gays and lesbians recently took place in the Belgian city of Genk. A video with the shouts of “Allahu akbar” were published by the French newspaper “Le Figaro”, among others. There was little response in the German-speaking media, of course only until hundreds of Islamic extremists caused a scandal in Hamburg. In Genk and in all other cities it is about a phenomenon that can be observed in most European immigration societies: Muslim apologists who, citing their cultural and religious identity, place themselves above others and reject the open society.
This radical-conservative backlash often turns into bullying and violence, especially among young people. It’s about contempt for sexual minorities, women, Jews, “infidels” and Muslims who are supposedly not Muslim enough; about protests against Christmas carols, the right to criticize religion or teaching topics that some students do not like. One can hardly speak of individual cases anymore – and the way we deal with the problem is characterized by dangerous naivety.
A trend towards conservative, sometimes radical Islam can be observed throughout Europe. These tendencies are being promoted in parts of the Muslim population by activists, influencers and Islamic states such as Qatar, which finance mosques and associations in Europe. Scientists are now talking about a so-called “theo-populism” that divides the world into “halal” (permissible) and “haram” (not permitted, unclean).
In France, where five to ten million Muslims live and the state pursues a strict secularism policy, this phenomenon has led to a bloody culture war. An investigation ordered by the Senate has shown that French teachers prefer to censor themselves rather than take on parents and students. They do it for good reason. The head of the Paris high school, Maurice Ravel, recently resigned because he received death threats. He had asked a student to take off her headscarf, whereupon he was accused on social networks of slapping her. To date there is no evidence of this.
A high school teacher in Issou who showed her students a painting from the 17th century also received threats. Because the picture shows naked women, Muslim students theatrically covered their faces with their hands. Parents accused the teacher of showing the picture specifically to hurt Muslims. A teacher was stabbed to death by an Islamist in Arras last October amid shouts of “Allahu Akbar”.
According to a recently published survey by the Ifop Institute, 50 percent of Muslim students surveyed were of the opinion that it was their right to boycott school material if it hurt religious feelings. Around a quarter of participants thought it was okay to be homophobic or sexist in the name of religion. And 16 percent did not want to clearly condemn the murder of Dominique Bernard.
France is only comparable to other European countries to a limited extent. There is less unemployment, better prospects and a greater social mix, even in larger cities. The Muslim population, for example, is made up of immigrants from the Balkans, lives less segregated and is predominantly secular. The state also does not take offensive action against expressions of religious belief in schools. But there are symptoms of the increasing spread of halal-haram thinking everywhere. This became obvious after the Hamas terror on October 7. Many Jewish children reported that they were bullied by Muslim classmates. For several years now, teachers who teach in highly multicultural neighborhoods have been confronted with students who attract attention through their religiously disguised power behavior. For example, they refuse to take lessons with girls and treat female teachers disrespectfully.
That’s how it started in France, over twenty years ago. The first to suffer were Jewish children, some of whom retreated to private schools. However, the problem was kept quiet and suppressed by the French establishment for a long time – out of fear of accusations of racism and with the argument that “one should not create waves” because of individual cases. A majority of the left and many citizens made the problem taboo by accusing warnings of adding “grist to the mill of the right.”
With this mixture of fear, excessive demands and delusion, politicians and educators in countries like Germany react to “confrontational expressions of religion,” as the phenomenon is called in sociologist jargon. For a long time, educators spoke of “individual cases,” as if there were no common ideological causes, and the problem of Islamic and Arab hatred of Jews was obscured.
Universities hardly prepare upcoming teachers for the challenge of “confrontational expressions of religion.” Rather, educational theorists seem to be influenced by postcolonial and intersectional theories: Muslims are seen as a homogeneous group that, like other minorities, is oppressed by the majority society. In this worldview, Islamism is not a dangerous ideology, but rather an illusion of rights or, at best, a reaction to exclusion and discrimination.
In university magazines, students are recommended teaching materials in which they can deal with “anti-Islamism, bullying, structural racism and stigmatization”. Being anti-Islamist – i.e. rejecting political movements that put religious laws above those of the democratic constitution – is therefore bad and racist, just as talking about Islamism is bad in general.
Anyone who taboos Islamism in the name of diversity and gender is either naive or cynical. Because Islamists are only in favor of diversity if it serves to achieve their religious goals. It is no coincidence that Islamic fundamentalists are joining forces with reactionary Christians in protests against school lessons on sexuality and LGBTQ+ rights. This happened in England and Belgium, where five schools were set on fire last autumn.
A far-sighted integration and education policy would not strengthen the Islamists’ victim narrative, but rather those Muslims who view their religion as a private matter. Schools in which youth groups cause unrest would have to be relieved by reassigning students. It cannot be the case that in some neighborhoods a minority should integrate a majority while others are hardly affected. Teachers should deal with Islamist ideas in their training. They could show the children what totalitarian ideologies have in common and what differences there are between Christian and Islamic hatred of Jews; they could tell about the Ottoman genocide of the Armenians. And they could create awareness of the shared responsibility of the Arab and European imperialists for the slave trade, instead of repeating woke beliefs about the sole guilt of the white man.
Anyone who thinks they can reassure fundamentalists with dialogue and accommodation is wrong. “We have to realize that some people simply refuse to form a society with us,” said Michaëlle Paty in a recent interview with „Le Point“ magazine. Paty is the younger sister of the French teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded in the street by an Islamist in 2020 because he wanted to explain the principle of freedom of expression to his students and showed them caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. According to Michaëlle Paty, even in France there are still people who do not want to see how much Islamist ideology threatens schools. But it is vital to name the evil. “I fear that without a decisive response it will end very badly.”
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