The financial crisis in wealthy countries has not only caused right-wing and center- right parties in Europe to retreat from advocating market radicalism, but has also returned faith to the center of European politics.
Jan-Werner Mueller from the Project Syndicate Institute made this observation in this paper Wednesday, noting that the trend has distanced Europe from America where religion played virtually no role in its recent presidential election.
As it stands, Europe is moving closer to Indonesia where religion has always been exploited for political purposes, including the ongoing presidential election. There is no shortage of politicians in this country who are willing to play with fire, unmindful of the high social costs of their behavior.
From France to Britain, religion has found its way into politics, which Mueller believes results from the dilemma facing right-wing and center-right parties trying to appear more modern on the one hand, while on the other hand painting themselves as sworn enemies of the left’s supposed moral relativism.
For Indonesians, who have endured conflicts as a result of mixing religion with politics, what is going on in Europe is a cause for concern.
A case in point is French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s criticism of the burqa, a head-to-toe Islamic garment worn by women, in his speech at parliament on June 22.
The criticism was made following a call for a parliamentary inquiry into the wearing of the burqa.
This has refreshed memories of France’s ban on the Muslim headscarf and religious symbols of all faiths in state schools and other public buildings in 2004.
In the past, Sarkozy has repeatedly said that France needed to rethink its traditional strict separation of state and religion, called laicite.
Sarkozy said that the garment was not welcomed in France as women became “prisoners behind netting, cut off from social life, deprived of identity”.
The burqa, he said, was not a sign of religion but of subservience. But he stressed that France “must not fight the wrong battle” saying that “the Muslim religion must be respected as much as other religions”.
This is in contrast to what US President Barack Obama said recently in Cairo, “It is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit, for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear”.
Support to ban the burqa in France has come from many quarters including prominent Muslim, Fadela Asmara, the cities minister, who said that the burqa was “a coffin that kills fundamental liberties”, and a sign of the “political exploitation of Islam”.
Mohammed Moussaoui, the president of France’s Representative Muslim Council, said he agreed with Sarkozy’s position on burqas, calling them “an extremely marginal phenomenon”.
The criticism will likely receive support from the parliament that has set up a working group to study a possible ban of burqas.
From a country with an enormous mix of ethnic and religious groups, we think the French government has gone too far. A government has the power to do what it sees fit, but it has limitations on controlling what its citizens want to wear particularly, when it applies across the board, which is unlike the 2004 ban on the headscarf.
The laicite is a wonderful concept, albeit it was won by blood and great suffering. The French government needs to be more prudent in dealing with the question of burqa.
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