Tragic Farce

They were furious. They were chanting slogans. They were swearing to crush the conspiracy being hatched against Islam. They were cursing the Western 'flawed' way of life. The rally was organised to condemn the banning of the burqa (full face veil) in France.

Paradoxically, hardly any of the protesters had actually read the text of the French enactment banning, from April, the full face veil. In countries like Pakistan, the nucleus of present Muslim extremism, where literacy is not more than 15 to 20 per cent and centuries old feudalism has been successfully forestalling education, who'd bother to find out and go through the text of the legislation?

The intellectual decline which has engulfed the Muslim world has thrown it into a dangerous state of denial. Everything that other, especially advanced countries, do is perceived and analysed in the light of 'conspiracy theories'. The majority of Muslims are suffering from a devastating persecution complex, which, in turn, is begetting and aggravating militant extremism. Such has been the reaction to the French burqa ban.

Every Muslim knows that wearing the burqa has never been irremissible in Islam. A considerable number of Islamic jurists do not support it. Millions of Muslim women, while reaping crops in agricultural fields, picking cotton in plantations of central Pakistan, handling herds in Central Asian pasturelands, teaching in universities, working in banks and elsewhere do not wear the burqa.

Billions of Muslim women have never, and will never, cover their faces while performing the pilgrimage to holy Mecca. They are not allowed by Islam to do so during pilgrimage.

In France, as elsewhere, only a handful of Muslim women cover their faces. Yet fanatics are making the French enactment an issue and presenting it as anti Islamic sentiment. The full face veil is being jumbled up with the hijab (head-covering). France has not prohibited covering of head. Interestingly, Saudi Arabia has made wearing of abaya (robes) mandatory for all women who visit that country or live there, irrespective of their religion.

This brings us to another issue being thrown into oblivion by protesting Muslims. Millions of Muslims have migrated to the developed world where 'flawed secular' values are at variance with Islamic, or so called Islamic, requirements. There are more than 50 Muslim countries, some of which (such as Saudi Arabia, Libya, Qatar) are fabulously wealthy. Why it is that not one of all these countries can accommodate Muslim immigrants?

Statistics are mind-blowing. According to 2009 figures, 365,000 Muslims have made Australia their home, 281,000 live in Belgium, 657,000 in Canada, 3,554,000 in France, 4,026,000 in Germany, 946,000 in Netherlands, 650,000 in Spain, 1,647,000 in UK, and 2,454,000 in USA.

Millions are ensconced in Italy, Greece, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Austria, Japan and New Zealand. Millions more are struggling to follow. There are long queues in front of the embassies of Western countries. Asylum seekers are setting ashore from boats and cargo vessels. Many manage to land with tourist visas and vanish.

Economics is not the only catalyst. The unemployed destitute and the affluent lucky-one are equally enthusiastic to reach these promised lands. The rule of law, democratic norms, equal opportunities, better education prospects, and religious, political and personal freedom attract them to these countries. None of these is available in their homelands.

A strange Kafalah (sponsorship) system is prevailing in oil rich Middle Eastern citadels of Islam. Every migrant worker needs, by law, a guarantor who must be a local citizen. The guarantor legally owns the business and all movable and immovable property of the migrant, and documents are held in his custody. Nothing belongs to the migrant, whether he is entrepreneur or employee, except his passport, which he must carry wherever he goes.

'When employers have near total control over migrants' ability to change jobs, and sometimes to leave the country, workers can get trapped in exploitative situations in which they are forced to work without wages, get beaten or face other abuse,' says a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report.

Outrage over slights such as the burqa ban in France are a distraction from these more important issues. Look at the protests against this backdrop. Isn't it a farce? Albeit a tragic farce!