There is a banality to evil. People silently acquiesce and when the time comes to challenge it, they fall short. It is so very easy to fall in line, especially when problems are all around. But people must continue to think, strive for social justice, revolution and change. Whilst people come together, uniting to define a new tomorrow, there is always hope.
Immediately after the Nice attacks, French President François Hollande came out to decry that “all of France was under attack from Islamic terrorism”. Manuel Valls turned on Muslim communities. Marine Le Pen and the far right Front National also did so and are due to make huge gains ahead of the upcoming elections. Far right fascist parties are exactly making breathtaking gains across Europe.
The fact of the matter is that the Nice killer Bouhlel (like so many others) had little or nothing to do with Islam. The Paris Prosecutor’s statement said there was no connection to ISIS, Islamist extremists but rather the killer lived a life entirely removed of Islamic virtues and values. He had a problem with drink, drugs, sexual predilections, mental health, crime and anti-social behaviour, threats of violence. He was not a good man by any stretch. But connecting the killing to Islam and Muslims is a fallacy - it is a dirty tricks campaign, and it is an oppression against communities.
In France, the majority of Muslims are from the North African maghreb: Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. Housed in the run-down banlieue, the ghettos, they are denied jobs, housing, education, health and civil engagement. They are thrown on the scrap heap of society and left to rot.
From this maelstrom of humanity flows disaffection, anger, resentment and hatred of the State. It doesn’t take much for these people to become radicalised when they are seeing appalling acts of violence and terror committed by the State, by their governments, against innocent children, men, women and and families across the Muslim world — from their home nations. Bouhlel watched ISIS propaganda, videos of attacks and wanted revenge on the State carrying out acts against the Muslim world. But he is to Islam, as Breivik is to Christianity. They do not represent the faiths, or the people. Just as the Brussels attackers came from the margins of societies, the poorest areas, the most disenfranchised, these people will continue to be fodder against a state becoming increasingly totalitarian, oppressive and tyrannical against religious minorities - especially Muslims.
There are distinctions we now need to make. It is lazy and wrong to disregard the social, domestic and foreign policy components for radicalism and terror; to instead blame all Muslims as a monolithic bloc is to misguide the people as to what the problems are, it is to avoid tackling the issues, it is to exacerbate the problem. It fuels the war, it doesn't end it.
These are huge civilisational questions - what is tolerance, how do we accept change, what do we see for integrated and diverse communities in the future, in France how does laicite, liberté, égalité, fraternité work... or are they merely empty promises... fallacies?
Watch my debate on RT, with French far right journalist Alexandre Mendel, on Islamophobia, France and Muslims
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=nTCelK-bA5I
First published 20 July 2016: Medium