Scholars condemn France killings; stress need for interfaith understanding

Nov 5, 2020

New Delhi: The horrific incident of beheading of a school teacher in France and killing of another three people over the display of Prophet Mohammad’s caricature, and subsequent reaction of Freanch President Macron and some leaders from the Muslim world plus Islamophobic statements from other parts of the world have more than anything else underlined the need of interfaith understanding and not judging any religion and its entire followers by the acts of individuals or acts orchestarated by some vested interest which are not permitted by any religion. Those were broadly the views expressed here by scholars and experts at a webinar organised by the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS).

Killing any person, whatever the provocation, is not permitted by Islam or its Prophet, and those have done so, are individuals, not representatives of the followers of Islamic faith. They might just be the tools in the hands of forces, which might profess their religion as Islam, but have nothing today with the religion and have no understanding of the faith, the scholars said.

The persons who indulged in violence in France were migrants or second generation Muslims, who have not been taught the real tenets of Islam, but have only been given experience of its radicalised verison which has its origin and is fed by causes in a very complex situation peculiar to the French society of the present.

French scholar Jean-Thomas Martelli, head researcher of Centre for Sciences Humaines, who was the first speaker in the webinar, said that it was very strange that secularism in France emerged as a revolutionary tool against the forces of conservatism, and to establish the powers of the state against the Church, but today it was being used to reinforce ultra nationalism which excludes minorities or targets them, casting a veil of suspicion on them. In India, the situation was the opposite as there secularism was being weakened by ultranationalistic forces to achieve their ends.

And the trajectory of French secularism has made an anarchist journal Charlie Hebdo a normative symbol of national identity, he said. The French scholar said there were views that terrorist that attacked the school teacher was completely disconnected with the values and traditions of Islam and was an individual actor, but he believed there must be some international connection to his act and it must have been orchestrated.

Noted jurist Prof Tahir Mahmood, former chairman of the Law Commission of India, in his brief intevention said that both freedom of expression and freedom of religion were not unbridled in the Constitution of this country nor of any other country. He said there was no dispute with the French establishment that the state will not support any display of religion, but that does not mean that it should permit any negative display of religion.

Prof Emeritus and President at Maulana Azad University Prof Akhtarul Wasey said that violence was not permitted in any religion and Islam too does not support the violence as committed against the French citizens, whatever the cause or provocation might be. The perpetrators of such violence do not know how the Prohpet himself treated his enemies.

”We are all for freedom of expression and freedom of religion as a minority here but these freedoms are not without some limitations. ”No religious figure should be denigrated. We condemned when Bamyan Buddha was razed in Afghanistan,” he said.

Islamic scholar Fr Edwin Victor in his remarks called for a stop to the kind of violence that has taken place in France. At the same time he called for efforts to enhance the understanding of Islam in the Christian world, as problems arise when one does not understand a phenomen but bases one’s assessment and actions on second hand information. Giving an example, he said Arab Christians evaluated islam with reason but Byzantine rulers were all negativity towards Islam as they did not experience first hand the faith as being practiced.

He said the need of the hour was to ” know each other and enhance our sensibilities towards eachother.”

Director of CSSS senior advocate Irfan Engineer in his concluding remark as moderator said freedom of speech and expression and also of religion were subject to reasonable limits in the Indian Constitution and in the laws of any civilised society, but it was very unfortunate that these were applied very selectively in India. While the all discourse of hatred against minorities goes unpunished, even the slightest remark against Hindu religion is take as offence and cases are registered.

Violence in the name of religion is unpermissible, whether it is the killing in France or the killing of innocent people by cow vigilates in India, Engineer said.

—INDIA NEWS STREAM