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Confident, liberal West shouldn’t need a burka-clad scapegoat
France’s attack on the burka shows they feel threatened. If only Britain’s silence was a sign of liberal confidence
I tell you, we must not be ashamed of our values. We must not be afraid of defending them." Thus did President Sarkozy explain his latest attack on the full veiling of women.
My first reaction to the speech was positive: I think we need a greater sense of pride in our liberal tradition. Here, it seemed, was a leader saying just that. But on reflection I am not so sure.
The key to the whole issue lies in Sarkozy's use of the word 'defending'. It implies that French secularism is threatened by Muslim dissent in its midst. Is this the case?
The only threat veiled women pose is to liberal self-esteem
Yes and no. It is not threatened in any real political sense. Yet on a psychological level it clearly is threatened. France is threatened by traditionalist Muslim dress in the same way that a traditional-minded man is threatened by an expression of homosexuality.
This man has no reason to fear for his safety: he is physically strong. But he is made uncomfortable, he feels that his identity is being subtly undermined. He feels the need to assert his identity as natural and right, even if it makes a scene.
Ideally the liberal state will be so confident in its liberalism that it will be able to tolerate the small minority that rejects that liberalism. It will be confident that the truth of liberalism will win them round.
Of course things are different if that small minority poses a direct political threat. But this is not the case with fully veiled women. The only threat they pose is to liberal self-esteem: how dare some people refuse to be like us?
It would be nice to conclude that Britain is so confident in its cultural orientation that it feels no need to pick on a tiny irrelevant minority. There is some truth in this: we have a pretty successful history of incorporating outsiders, softening their illiberal edges (it worked with our Catholic minority).
But more recently the reality is that we also lack confidence in our liberal values, preferring to evade the issue rather than making a fuss. And there are obvious dangers here too.
The way forward is to be bolder in asserting pride in secular liberal values, but to avoid the temptation to use essentially harmless Muslims as the scapegoat. We must 'only connect' British liberal tolerance with French liberal pride. ·
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Wet religious fantasist christian trying to think. There are so many holes in this weak argument that it's difficult to know which to pick on in a short comment. '... a small minority which rejects that liberalism' they may be small, but they are growing fast and they not only reject liberalism, they hate it and want to destroy it. They pose a real danger to a society that has prided itself on tolerance, and if we don't act soon, they will be taking over; there are already 75 Sharia courts operating in the UK with the connivance of the PC government, we have already had terrorist outrages caused by Muslims born here, one terrorist has already excaped capture by dressing as a woman in a burka. Muslims are now 10% of the population, and since they don't believe in birth control, will be increasing that percentage even if we were to stop ALL further immigration. They have the avowed aim to Europe becoming Muslim, they invaded before and we have the remnants in Albania and Kosovo to show how far they got. Now, the serious invasion is on, and despite many denying it, the truth comes out from the mouths of the increasingly voluble and self confident fanatics. If we don't act soon, the day the voters elect a BNP government comes closer, and then we will all suffer.
We have seen in Iran how Islam and democracy don't mix, and they never will. We have to fight for our secular society or it will be taken from us. The wooly christian way of turning the other cheek will destroy us.