April 8th, 2010 (09:51 pm)
current location:
Home
current song: BBC 6 Music
....but my former philosophy teacher in high-school, Tariq Ramadan, has just been on Amanpour's show on CNN International a few minutes ago! I must say it's a bit funny to see him facing Christiane Amanpour now :p
Of course, they (including James Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute) were discussing Muslims, both in America and in Europe. It was very interesting and while I have doubted a few points Ramadan had argued in the past, I find myself having to agree with what I've heard him say during the show (I missed the first 5 minutes of it), such as: the Palestinian resistance is legitimate, but their means should be as well, i.e. targetting innocent people is not legitimate no matter how much the cause itself can be. And he also is against the burka ban in France, suggesting instead to go talk to Muslim women living there and who believe that this is the right thing to do with regard to their faith, that it truly isn't, namely that Islam does not impose the burka on women, and thus not wearing it is not a violation of their faith. But of course, why would politicians choose to that when 1) it would make them look weak in the eyes of the more conservative voters and 2) opening the dialogue a long-term solution that cannot make a visible difference from one day to the next, unlike a law (at least that's what they're delusional enough to believe, because I fail to see how that's gonna be enforced anyway). Politicians put their job on the line every few years at the elections. You do the math
The one thing though that annoyed me was when Zogby's intervened to explain the difference between the global situation of Muslims in the US and in Europe. It is true that the press here in Europe, as well as quite a few politicians, try to make it an "us vs. them" issue, something that doesn't exist in the US, generally speaking (i.e. save for the post 9/11 trauma) and that integration is, one the whole, more difficult in Europe than in the US (and I would add, not just for Muslims, but they have been more stigmatized of late than other groups). Zogby said that it had to do with how America was, in essence, more tolerant and welcoming (although he didn't use those words. I'll try to catch a rerun and write down how he put it exactly), and more maleable, welcoming people would would very quickly feel assimilated by society while society would also be changed by them, in a 2 ways exchange, while Europe was much more rigid, and, he even saidm because of the bigotery there.
Well, that's all fine and well, Mr. Zogby, but let's not forget that identities of European regions (and not nations - nations are very recent, and sometimes artificial, constructions) have a much longer history that that of America and that, for the vast majority, Americans are immigrants, and pretty recent ones at that. Identities of European nations although more recent, have been forged and solidified in the fire of countless wars on the continent: of course, they are less malleable, as a result, than American identity, to accomodate important groups of immigrants with a completely different culture.
And let's not even go into the centuries of war between Muslims and Christians.....
Anyhoo, if you get a chance to see it on the CNN international channel, please try to do so!