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france has the largest muslim population in europe, nearly 6 million people, and for a country holding that record, it is not treating its muslim population with respect. the most recent instance being the french government banning french athletes wearing the hijab at the paris olympics next year. well, this move has received wide scale condemnation, including by the un. in this edition of the spotlight we will look at why france is enacting such restrictions on muslim women. and whether there is pattern by france in discriminating against muslims all together, first we introduce our guests. anthony hall, professor of globalization, lethbridge university, joins us from lethbridge. also joining us is fahima mahomet who's a broadcaster and executive coach, joins us from london. welcome to you both, i'll start with you first, anthony hall. the

incident as we understand it, the french government banning french athletes for wearing the hijab at the paris olympics. now this what the french sports minister has said an explanation from him, he's in favor of a quote strict regime of secularlism applied rigorously in the field of sport, and my question to you, aside from your reaction to this is, isn't that in itself this stance, a form of discrimination? well, discrimination is a tricky. word, i think the word word that a i'd like to see center is secularization and certainly islamophobia, now to me, the quintessen of islamophobia was concocting this 9-11 event to make it seem that radical muslims did it because they hated the freedoms of the west, it was a concocted job, an israeli zionist lead job, 911, so this islam uh that infects people's minds, has

been engineered and created. now uh, this word secularization, we're talking about france here, france had something called the french revolution in 1789, which was largely about secularization, overthrowing the divine right of monarchs and the clergy, and so the west has developed this, some se the communist revolution is a sort of outgrowth of the french revolution, and the communist revolution was about secularization, materialism, that the main way that humans define and negotiate their relationships has to do with economics and material relations, so this secularization that is being demonstrated here and the obsessions of those who want to take it, beyond the point of a respect. fellow human beings, but imposing

some kind of doctriner principle that they believe in, in terms of dress or how you do schooling or what you wear at the olympics, all of that is uh, we need to put this in context, well thanks for putting it into context, but i'm going to take the context and background info that you gave to us, which is really appreciated and put it uh much more simpler to you, in terms of let's say you are athlete, you are a muslim. you believe in the hijab and you're very good at let's say archery or let's say swimming and you have very promising future in that field enough to qualify for olympics, but you can't go to the olympics if you're a french muslim because of this uh i guess band the government, the french government feels is necessary, how would that make you feel? tell us what person those shoes doing? yeah, um, it's great question and i think that it's quite obvious to lot of women generally that when they are told what to wear. is

definitely infringing upon an individual choice and freedom and it's also an oppression. i think as history shows that there are lots of dictatorship around the of fact that when you want to control a particular sector. society then you will actually you know pick on something like you know trying to challenge what someone wears and dictate that so i think it's a much wider very very alarming message that's been sent across even though french has its uh fundamental principle of secularism it shouldn't really infringe upon individual choices as well as you know disregard the inclusitivity of spiritual um sort of like international sporting events because in the spirit of sports, it should really be wide and open everyone, and we all have our individual choice, and even if it's uh under a certain rule, i think it again, it's it's more of a dictatorship as well as an oppression to a particular group, so it's definitely worrying and it's definitely

something that we need to review lot closer and see how this unfolds, because it is targeting a particular group and it really is not sort of in line with the values. the west or you know the un in general? well, france seems to be very focused on the muslim community as it should, but maybe for all the wrong reasons, anthony hall, when it passes a law such as this anti-separ separatism law, which has been criticized widely for singling out muslims. one of the things that it does, intervening in mosks and associations, responsible for their administration as well as controlling the finances of muslim affiliated associations and non-governmental organizations. what does france feel that it has to pretty much controls in that respect to muslims? well, i believe that this obsession with secularization that i introduced, has lot to do with it, now heard

my fellow presenter here, talk about individual rights that the individual rights of muslims are being infr, but then there's discussion of group rights and treating all members a group in a discriminatory way, so this is a big deal in the west, this group right versus individual right, and how do we balance the um, mean if if the position is like say you go to war with france, it's conceivable that muslims will join the french military, should uh the french military be open to distinct forms of uniforms for muslims in french army, let's move it away from the olympic. i'm just trying to advance discussion here and think this through. well, i mean that uh, what do you think about that analogy there? first of all, because there's different venues and you in case of a war or the military, i should say, i think that would be a unique one. i don't know if that

fits into the conversation, what do you think? well, i'd like to think of it it's a different sort of sense, at the end of the day, for example, international human rights standards. emphasizes that the restrictions on religious expression should be minimal and justifiable under a specific circumstance and strict regulations on religious attire including the bikini ban for example uh may raise questions whether or not these restrictions meet international criteria. i don't think that they are addressing this on that level from the un's perspective and it's just been out there to say under the umbrella of secularism, but it does actually. infringe even on the us standards of human rights, so when you look at as much as you say group or individual, regardless, um, i think we need to question, you know, where do we have those boundaries and lines when it comes to the human rights standards? why should there be such boundaries and lines, anthony, when it

comes to muslims, i mean, another one of these things based on the separatism law that i'm looking at, which is pretty unbelievable is that it restricts the educational choices of muslims by making homes. schooling subject to official permission, would you allow that to happen to your family if you were a muslim? uh, well, i think this is very good place to dig into this issue, um, because uh, homeeschooling is much being discussed in canada right now, because schooling is doing transgender experiments, trying to convince young people that they should change their genders, trying to persuade them that they need surgery to be mutilated, that they need hormones and such, and muslims here in canada are leading rejection of this, and people are facing this crisis in canada, wanting homeeschooling, and i'm wondering if homeschooling might be the place to say to the french government, well if you uh are you

so obsessed with you know being secular and conformist and violating our human rights to express ourselves as individuals and a group, what about if if muslim community in france became organized to say we're going to do our own schooling uh and we want our percentage the tax money recompensed to us for you some support in our schooling, and so we don't really want to be part of your your school system, we we'd like to have our own homeeschooling, which we organized in a small way or a large way, and and and we'll live and let live in that in that way, we don't like the way you're uh forcing your majoritarian control, the french government on us, which is very significant part of france, but since you're insisting on doing these horrific things to us, we want to have our own schools and uh want to raise our children uh, not in a woke way, you know, this woke thing about uh forcing uh,

homosexual, gay, lesbian things on on, that doesn't wash well with muslims, as we can see here in canada, i'm sure it's the same in france, so how about being a little bit assertively separatist with the government of france and saying let us develop our own education, then since since you're you, we we don't agree with your type of education, what we're asking, and you know we have to share a country here, i believe that number of muslim people there are probably committed to being citizens of france and uh making a go of in france, but we need adaptations, well that sounds like an at least a proposition there i homemate if i'm not mistaking, something that perhaps can be contemplated, but when it comes to this french uh president uh, i believe that it was just years ago when he said islam is in a crisis, muslims need to be reformed, the clerics need to go schooling in order to adhere to the type of islam that the

french presidents and his state thinks should be exercised in his country. i don't know if he's going to uh stand up for muslims stand up against the government in terms of having a budget passed for for them. i mean, what, does the french president not realize what he's saying, and the impression he makes when he says, clerics need to be reformed and is. islam needs to be reformed, i mean i'm not going to say that's a blasphemy, but that is very offensive given a muslim to hear those words. absolutely, it's a belief system that has been concepted at the end of the day it also shows that um it's more often a state control that he's trying to you know sort of place france under instead of the uh sort of democratic sort of like society and state that every sort of western um sort of country sort of tries to sort of say that keeps them. apart from you know backward or other countries, so what they are exercising is

sort of the same same sort of way as they would um scrutinize um sort of you know the east for example when they are doing just because of they choosing to have the other end of the extreme, so i think that we need to be very very concerned about the way in which we seeing france to be more of a dictatorship as well as um trying to ' target certain groups and especially the muslims in particular and um having a state control where they not even giving parents a right to um educate their own children and they have to be involved even in the home, so that is very warring, and it's really no different to any other maybe communist country or dictatorship or autocratic system, so i think that if they can do that and successfully do that with one group, they can definitely do that with someone else, so even if you're not implied. and part of the umbrella of islam or muslims, then if they can successfully do it

there, then other groups and other religious parties or other sort of like community should also be worried if you know they're going to be targeted next in the same way, indeed. all right, let's get your thoughts on this european islamophobia report, conducting in the year 2022. if i may ask you there, anthony hall, some of the findings, i'm going to begin with one, if you are a french muslim applying for a job, you are five times. more likely to face discrimination than a non-muslim, the same types of findings were found for housing for muslims and also for police brutality, so the big question is in a country like france that houses or has the most number of muslims in europe, why is it that there's islamophobia uh in this scale, to the scale that we're seeing based on this report? and why does france have the most muslims in europe? i mean, the fact is, this is real. really deeply rooted in history with algeria, especially, and there was a point at

which france actually treated algeria as part of france, and essentially demean the the human rights and citizenship of indigenous algerians who are mostly muslims, so this oppression of muslims, is very deep rooted, it's part of a... approach to the to the max um where you become without principles, without ethics, without values, without respect for the rule of law and such, so uh, this has to be confronted the the the depth of this. well, the confrontation comes with gear, by gear, mean the type of gear the

muslims were, and fahim, that findings that reported in this or that i just... related in this report that was done on islamophobia in europe of which france was the case study, one of things uh regarding employment it said if you are a muslim woman uh wearing head scarf, you have a 1%, 1% chance of finding emempts, why is this muslim gear so much a thorn or a piece of uh issue for uh at least in france, 2004 it banned scarves, 2010 it band on full face... we're looking at uh 2023 the the ban on that and now of course our news piece that we began with in terms of the the swimware why does the muslim gear on women even an issue to pass laws banning them? i think there's multi-faceted reasons

for it um obviously the the actual ban itself is such a disparity which contradicts the principles of equality and and also whereby the geting away with it, because the eu and the un are have role to play with regards to addressing discrimination within any member states and ensuring that the eu adhered to principles of religious freedom and non-discrimination um being essential and i guess that we're targeted generally across the globe because we are very strong in our faith and we don't conform and if there are agendas that are being put out there with regards whether it's an education or anywhere else it's always out. fear and threat because we are the one long standing, very wide um sort of religion that is ever so much growing in numbers across the globe as well as we are still strict and adhered to our sort of religious views and ways, but at the same time we are still able to uh be quite successful in the west and and still conform and integrate, and maybe that is seen as a

threat, um, there could be many reasons for it um to sort of you know dumb us down or... you know to control and to dictate, because you know obviously there's power within the way in which we believe, feel and act, and we're not easily swayed by even you know this wokeness or feminism or anything that people even in the west, you know under even secularism or non-religion may even find a problem, whereas with us it's already embedded in stone in our traditions and our cultures and our beliefs. anthony hall, our guests our talks about the un and the eu, it's worth mentioning that they as institutions need to some what the more proactive when it comes to muslims in general and this case france and the laws that it has enacted, why uh have, i don't want to say, why have they short changed muslims, but why are they not being more viciforous, even uh alone act on it? well, there's a political reality here that i think i would like to address from the west, and uh, there's an

understanding that the jewish supremacy in the government of biden, and it's in all the way. countries has become sort of intolerable that we have no say in our own government anymore and uh let's just consider what about the muslim migration into israel? isn't that happening? aren't they sort of supposed to be liberal democratic israel? no, there is no muslim immigration into israel, and yet israeli agents and people like soros are enforcing this rule on europe that there must be open. uh of largely muslims from africa and such into you germany and the eu countries and and and this is creating a backlash among western people, largely white people, like you could say indigenous european people, and it's not totally to be dismissed as just bigottry and racism, and

such, like, why is it that israel needs to have ethnic ruled so... israel is for jews and to develop uh that culture, but the same doesn't apply to europeans or north americans and united states, there's a totally open border uh with people coming from all over the world flocking without going through any uh vetting process into the united states, this immigration uh thing and what is behind it like the financing of george soros, very uh well-known uh agent. which is failing, christianity is not a success story these days, and it's under assault, and it's definitely. that the people pushing this woke agenda have special uh animosity towards white christians, so the fact that this is

unfolding in this way, now there's macron trying to play all sides, he's an obvious rothchild show, and you know he is representing that faction as you, eu is is to represent that banking cartel, so the usual suspects that we can talk about on press tv, but somebody like me it's... to talk about it on western media, we don't have opening for this kind of discussion in western media, so i think it's a incument upon folks in the theocracy of iran for instance, to you consider what we're going through in the west, sure, well one of the things that's pretty amazing when it comes to this whole uh islamophobia and anti-islam sentiment uh if you agree from mohammed is the fact that you have many politicians in europe who are uh their platform uh part of it is anti islam uh and they promote that and then they have followers and they have lot of supporters that way uh can we who can we blame there or what can be blamed there? is it because it's

a product of the society in the way that anti-islam sentiment is maybe promoted through either the culture uh through media, what have you? or is it that uh they feel threatened by muslims in any shape or form? what do you think? i think it's a little bit of everything that you suggested and do think there's an agenda in mainstream media. to uh promote uh certain minority groups uh within certain faiths in order for every one to you know be the sheep that they've got following with regards to having one narrative about for example muslims and that's why when anyone sees a muslim the first thing they say you either terrorist or oppressive or anything like that because it's been subliminal messages for decades um in the media with regards to it and you even probably even beyond uh 911 and at the end of the day that was just jump start where you got a real excuse now for uh you know promoting this kind of material and that's all people see when they see muslims and

their voices are never really genuinely heard and the the norm and the everyday people and the ones that are working and integrating and living for generations are not necessarily being heard or spoken to and even if they stand up for the same rights and the same values as everybody else they're not looked upon as you know as equal in that way. or even seen in that way, if anything was to go wrong, muslims are also the first to condemn certain things, but you never g to see that, so yes, media is powerful, and um, but the thing is we are moving away from that with other platforms that are coming up and uh seeing, but obviously if you've already got a belief, you're going to follow what you're going to follow and you're going to jump on that bandwagon, so it's very easy, so until you know criminalizing uh islamophobia is going to be an idea considered as criminal offence a kind to anti-semitism. then then yeah we might have some sort of way, but we need more leaders, we need more um, obviously we've got you know powerful countries unfortunately that are not even on our sides

even if they claim to be muslims, for example you know in in the middle east, so then we do have a political problem within our own um sort of muslim communities as well for not actually um on the side that we need for our own people, so there is a wider conversation beyond just france at the moment, thank you for that, appreciated broadcaster and executive coach from london. anthony hall, thank you. professor of globalization lethbridge university from lathbridge. thank you to you both. with that we come to an end for this edition of the spotlight from the team. it's goodbye. i loved traveling. since i was a child because we used to travel twice year with our dad. once i did my part for my country, i felt i should travel abroad. traveling to

other countries has its own ups and downs. i always recommend those who want to travel to start by exploring iran. i went to thailand, laos, vietnam and the chinese border. i think the more hardship we go through in life, the stronger we get. on all my trips, in addition to peace, my motto was protection of orphan children, the said it was going to reconstruct afghanistan and restore security. to the country, but after two decades, wherever you look in the country, you only see death and destruction. officials have taken the lid off

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first of your headlines in this hour, iran successfully puts the free imaging satellite into orbit, it's another achievement for the country's aerospace industry, and calls on the saudi led coalition to stop the siege and aggression, stressing that yemen will not accept any form of western hegemony. and national morning in irak for the victims of a wedding party fire, the iraqi city of hamdaniah, which is blamed a lack of safety standards of the reception hall.