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 of the hijab at the paris olympics next year. well, this move has received wide sc

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 and guess muslims all together. first let me 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. uh, the incident, as we understand it, the french government banning french athletes for wearing the hijab at the paris olympics. now this is what the french sports minister has said an explanation from him. he's in favor of a quote strict regime of secularism applied rigorously in the field of sport. uh, and my to you, aside from your reaction to this is, isn't that in itself this stance of?

of discrimination, well discrimination is a tricky word, i think the word word that i'd like to see put front and 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. an israeli zionist lead job 911 so this islamophobia uh that infects people's minds has been engineered and created. now 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 uh,

so uh, the west has developed this, some see the communist revolution is a sort of outgrowth of the french revolution, and the communist revolution was about you, secularization, materialism, that uh, the main way that humans define and negotiate their relationships has to do with economics and material relations, so secularization that is uh, being demonstrated here and the obsessions of those who want to take it uh beyond the point of uh respecting fellow human beings, but imposing some kind of doctrinaire uh principle that they believe in uh schooling uh you know we need to put this in context. well thanks for putting it into context, but i'm going to take the context some 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 you have very promising future in that field enough to qualify for the olympics, but you can't go to the olympics if you're a french muslim because of this uh, i guess ban that the government, the french government feels is necessary, how that make you feel? tell us what person in those shoes is feeling? yeah, um, it's a great. question and i think that it's quite obvious to lot of women generally that when they are told what to wear um it's definitely infringing upon an individual choice and freedom and it's also an oppression. i think as history shows that there is lots of dictatorship around the fact that when you want to control a particular sect or 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 fundamental principle of secularism, it shouldn't really infringe upon individual choices as well as disregard the inclusitivity of spiritual um sort of like international sporting events because in in the spirit of sport 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 uh sort of in line with the values of the west or you know the un in general? well uh 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 uh which has been criticized widely uh for singling out muslims. one of the things that it does intervening in mosks and associations uh responsible for their administration as well as controlling the finances of muslim affiliated associations and non-governmental organizations. what is france feel that it has to pretty much control mosks in that respect when it comes to muslims? well, i believe uh that this obsession with secularization that i introduced, has lot to do with it. now i heard uh my fellow presenter here uh talk about... individual rights, that the individual rights of muslims are being infringed, but then there's a discussion of group rights and treating all members of 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 to? um, i mean if, if the position is like say you go to war with france, it's conceivable that muslim will join the french military, should uh... the french military be open to distinct forms of uniforms for muslims in the french army? let's move it away from the olympics, i'm just trying to advance a discussion here and think this through. well, i mean that uh, what do you think about that analogy there, family, first of all, um, because there's different venues in the you, in case of a war or the military, i should say, i think that that would be uh a unique one. if that fits into the conversation, what do you think? well, i'd like to think of it as 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 france

strict regulations on religious attire, including the bikini ban, for example, may raise questions whether or not these restrictions meet international criteria, and i don't think that they are. 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 un standards of human rights, so when you look at it 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 uh? anthony uh 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 home 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 the 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 are you know so obsessed with you know being secular and conformist and violating our human rights to express ourselves as individuals and a group, uh, what about if you're if the muslim community in france became organized to say,

well we're going to do our own schooling uh and we want you know our percentage of the tax money re 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 would like to have our own homeschooling, which we could organize in a small way or a large way, and uh 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 of 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 we want to raise our children, not in a woke way, you know, this woke thing about uh forcing hell, you know, homosexual, gay, lesbian thing on on, that doesn't wash well with muslims, here in canada, i'm sure it's the same in france, so how about being a little bit assertively

septised 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, that's what we're asking, and and 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 goal of it. france uh, but we need adaptations. well, that sounds like an at least a proposition there, if my homem, if i'm not mistaking, something that perhaps can be contemplated, but when it comes to this french uh president, i believe that it was just years ago when he said, islam is in a crisis, muslims need to be reformed, even the clerics need to go through schooling in order to adhere to the type of islam that the french president and his state thinks should be exercised. in this country, i don't know if he's going to uh stand up for muslims standing up uh against the government in

terms of having a budget pass 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 islam needs to be reformed. i mean, i'm not going to say that's a blast for me, but that is very offensive, give given a muslim to hear those words. absolutely, it's a... leaf system that has been concupted and at the end of the day it also shows that um it's more of a state control that he's trying to you know uh 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 uh 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 it sort of the same same sort of way as they would um scrutinize um sort of the east for example when they are doing it 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 uh we seeing france to be more of a dictatorship uh as well as um trying to um target certain groups and especially the muslims in particular and having a state control where they not even giving pair. parents a right to um educate their own children and they have to be involved even in the home, so that is very worrying 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, 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 going to be targeted next in the same way. indeed. all

right, let's uh get your thoughts on this european islamophobia report uh conducting in the year 2022. if i may ask you there uh andy hall some of the findings. i'm going to begin with one. if you are a french muslim applying for a job, you're 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 question is, in a country like france that houses or has the most number of muslims in europe, why is it there's islamophobia in this scale, this scale we're seeing based on report, and why does france have the most muslims in europe? i mean, the fact is, this is 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. 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 consistent package, france colonized much of africa and is facing that, you know, the united states is facing the poverty of this secular approach to the to the max um where we become without principles, without ethics, without values, without respect for the rule of law and such, so uh, this uh has to be confronted, the the the... depth of this, well the confrontation comes with gear, by gear, i mean the type of gear the muslims wear, and that findings that i reported in this or that i just relayed in this report, that was not islamophobia in europe, of which france the case study, one of things uh regarding employment, it said if you are a muslim woman, wearing head scarf,

you have a 1%, 1% chance of finding employments, why is this muslim? gear so much a thorn or a piece of uh or issue for uh at least in france 204 it banneds 2010 it passed the ban on full face valles we're looking at uh 2023 the there was bann on that and now of course our news that we began with in terms the the swimware why is the muslim gear on women even an issue to pass law 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 fairness, and also whereby they're getting away with it, because the eu and the un are and 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, 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 agendars that are being put out there with regards whether it's an education or anywhere else, it's always out of 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, to sort of you know uh dum 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, 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 beliefes. anthony hall, our guest our talks about the un and the eu, it's worth mentioning that they as institutions need to somewhat be more proactive when it comes to muslims in general, and this case with france and the laws that is enacted. why uh have, i want to say, why have they short changed muslims? why are they not being more viciforous, even uh, let alone act on it? there's a political reality here that i think i would like to address from the west uh and uh you know there's a an understanding that the jewish supremacy in the government of baiden uh and you know it's in all the west 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 literal democratic. uh israel, no, there's no muslim immigration uh into israel, and israeli agents and people like soros are enforcing this rule on europe, that there must be open immigration, largely muslims from africa and such, into you, germany and the eu countries, and and and you know 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 that israel is for jews and to develop that culture, but the same doesn't apply to europeans or north americans

and united states, there's a totally open border with people coming from all over the world, 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, you know, very uh, well-known uh agents of a zzio american empire, 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 uh is unfolding in this way, now there's macron trying to play all sides, he's an obvious wroth child. show uh and you know he is representing that faction as you know eu is is to represent banking cartel so the usual suspects that we can talk about on press tv,

but somebody like me it's hard to talk about 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 know 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 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 other 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 everyone to you know be the sheep that they've got following with regards to having one narrative about you know for example muslims and that's when anyone sees a muslim, the first thing they say is, either terrorist or oppressive or you know anything like that, because it's been subliminal messages for decades um in the media with regards to it and you know even probably even beyond uh 911 and at the end of the day that was just the 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 generally heard and the the norm and pe people and the ones that are working and integrating and living for generations are not necessarily being heard or spoken even if they stand up 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're never going to see that so yes media is powerful and but the thing is we are moving away from that other platforms that are coming up and uh seeing but obviously if you you 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 offens 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 being 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 we appreciate it broadcaster and executive coach from london anthony hall thank you professor of globalization lethbridge university from thank you to you both with that we come to an end for this edition of the spotlight from and the team is goodbye. من دارم یه راهنمایی تهران جدید و دارم می نویسمش بعد چند تا عکس میخواستم بگیرم دیگه از

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