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The French State has for a long time maintained a peculiar policy of radical secularism. Under this doctrine, culture and religion are secondary to the liberal neutral state. Citizens of all colours and creed are, in theory, treated equally and make their way in society adhering to the values of the republic. In reality there is nothing neutral about the society the French have established. The 6 million strong Muslims of France have endured marginalisation, are erased from public life, their religion traduced by politicians and pundits. A ban on hijab remains in place in schools and universities, ostensibly to protect children from overbearing customs and on some beaches in France we have seen the undignified sight of French police demanding women wearing a burkini undress, to fit into French culture. In another time and to another community we would be calling it out as the unsavoury actions of a fascistic state. 

In recent weeks Emmanuel Macron, with an eye on next years municipal elections and national elections in 2022, has talked about Islam being in crisis all over the world and the need to fight what he calls “Islamic separatism”. His interior minister, doubling down on his idiocy, claimed that having separate halal meat shelves in a supermarket was a sign of Muslims wanting to be separate communities. Certainly, Macron’s current position reflects the unease he feels with losing out to Marine le Pen’s National Front and like many European politicians, maligning Muslims and Islam is a vote winner. 

In this malignant atmosphere, there is also the spectre of militancy. The provocations of Charlie Hebdo’s drawings of Rasullallah (saw) and its relentless campaign against the Islamic faith has given some the license respond with violence. The Killing of Samuel Paty, a school teacher and the murders earlier today in Nice provide fodder to the coercive policies of the state and play into the hands of those that want a Europe wide clampdown on Islam. 

To help us understand the current crises in France, I am delighted to have on The Thinking Muslim Sheikh Yasir Qadhi. Dr Yasir Qadhi is well known in the Muslim community, he is a scholar and since 2001, he has served as Dean of Academic Affairs at the Al-Maghrib Institute, with a center in Houston, Texas. He also taught in the Religious Studies department at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. He is currently the resident scholar of the East Plano Islamic Center in Texas. Certainly the interview looks at a range of interrelated issues and it may be that some listeners will disagree with some aspects of it. However, I am convinced that if this Ummah is to progress and move forwards, we are going to have to find a way to listen and not speak past one another. We have to learn to find a language that includes all views as long as they have an Islamic basis. I have said it before, but there is much more that unites us than divides us and too many Muslim groups and associations create artificial bunkers from which they spend their time and energy pointing fingers at one another instead of addressing the real issues to enable progress. 

Dr Qadhi has raised some searching questions over the past few weeks about French policy towards Muslims, violence perpetrated by a minority of those Muslims and, he argues, the potential for the ‘French model’ to be exported to other countries where Muslims are a minority. I ask Dr Qadhi about Islamic justifications for violence, how we should defend the honour of the Messenger of Allah (saw), the position of minority communities, the role of scholarship in politics and raising awareness about these issues and we also speak about the current problem with many Islamic scholars who chose to remain silent instead of speak truth to power, less they lose their position, usually gained through political patronage or they lose their following. Inevitably the thorny subject of scholars and despotic rulers comes up, and Dr Qadhi gives his frank opinion on the matter.