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What about the issue of racism? The dominant narrative on the UK far-left runs something along the following lines: "Islamism might be bad, but it’s not a threat here. Anti-Muslim racism is a threat. Fighting that is our priority, and talking about Islamism undermines that fight." It’s a compelling argument, because organised-racist, semi-fascist groups like the English Defence League can put hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people on the streets here, whereas organised Islamism seems superficially weaker.
Partially this is because the left in Britain is itself extremely white, and has no real base in (predominantly South Asian) Muslim communities, so it doesn’t experience Islamism or Islamist ideas as a social force in daily life. But it’s a real issue to consider - how, as a predominantly white left, to critique and organise against a reactionary ideology rooted in a minority community which is subject to racism, without feeding into that racism? And, conversely, how to construct anti-racist alliances and movements that avoid endorsing, apologising for, or allying with, reactionary elements within the affected communities?
Your question raises other questions: since when is religion a solution to social and political problems ? Since when is this an opinion of the left? And to whom is Islamism “not a threat”? Maybe not to short sighted whites, to use your terminology, but the affected minority community may have other views: in particular, women in minority communities may have a different perception of what is a threat to them.
The European left is self-centred. They may see something as not being a threat to themselves; that does not mean it is not a threat to others.
It seems the left does not even acknowledge the existence and the role played by those who are deeply rooted in minority communities and who fight for women’s rights, workers rights, migrant rights, and for progressive solutions to communal conflicts – against the Muslim far-right. Why not learn from Southall Black Sisters, or from Women Against Fundamentalisms (sadly now defunct), for instance? They have all the competence, credentials, and decades-long on-the-ground experience of the threat that “Islamism” represents in Britain.
There are also numerous intellectuals of Muslim heritage who have spoken up and written about the threat that our religious far-right represents for the values and principles of European republics and democracies, and also, of course, for the minorities on European soil.
By not interfering, the left leaves us with the choice to submit or to die: in Algeria in the 90s, a short poem attributed to Tahar Djaout (2), the first journalist to be assassinated by the GIA (Groupe Islamique Armé, Armed Islamic Group) in Algiers, goes like this: “If you speak up you die; if you keep silent, you die; so speak up and die”. He did.
It seems to me that we are still left high and dry in this very same situation. The left is silently watching us die.
If the left admits to having no base in minority communities, it should be humble enough to let those who do have a base guide their analysis and alliances. At the moment, it is the reverse: our voices are disqualified in the name of the left ‘s imagined exclusive expertise on oppressed classes, racism, and minorities’ issues.
Let me note in passing that minorities are not a class, they comprise of several classes. We are still waiting for a proper class analysis of minority communities. It is usually assumed that those who plant bombs in Europe or use Kalashnikovs against the kafir are from the lower classes, despite repeated evidence that they mostly belong to educated middle-class families. Again, when facts challenge ideology, facts are disappeared.
What upsets me most is the implication that oppressed people can only turn out as fascists, never revolutionaries. Is this really what the left in Europe now believes?
Hundreds of so-called “Sharia courts” and other religious arbitration bodies, now operate in the UK, alongside the UK legal system and sometimes receiving endorsement from the legal establishment. Is that not a threat to the very principle of democracy? A parallel legal system being established for minorities, depriving them of rights enjoyed by the rest of the population, who are supposed to be their fellow citizens: can the left tolerate this? Can the left accept that white British women, under “British” law, enjoy more rights than minority women under religious laws? Can the left accept that citizens can be assigned a “minority” identity against their will, on the basis of their name, or their geographical origin, or that of their families? Can the left accepts that this communal identity supersedes their civil rights?
This was done to the Jews under Nazism. Will the left accept that it be done to Muslims, and those presumed to be Muslims, regardless of their personal religious beliefs?
If the left is serious about supporting oppressed minorities, it should realise that those who speak in the name of the community do not necessarily have the legitimacy to do so. By supporting fundamentalists, they simply chose one camp in a political struggle, without acknowledging it. The left will have to acknowledge the political nature of the movements they support. The left will have to chose who they ally with. Informed choices need to be made.
The English Defense League, or the French National Front, can put hundreds or even thousands on the streets? So can Muslim fundamentalists. Many big anti-war demos in Europe, and many pro-Palestinian demos, have large fundamentalist contingents. I can testify to the fact that in Paris, many progressive Algerians in exile, who used to support all these demos, now refuse to participate, as they do not want to march under the black fundamentalist flag, or hear anti-Jewish slogans and chants.
The paradox of allowing the xenophobic, “classic” far-right a monopoly over the discourse on the Muslim fundamentalist far-right, is that it reinforces and strengthens the classic far-right. People are not stupid; they see the increasing influence of Muslim fundamentalists and their attempts to change laws, school curricula, etc. Denial by the left leaves people with no alternative analysis to rely on than that produced by the xenophobic far-right. The left’s failure to critique and oppose Muslim fundamentalists, because it believes that, by staying silent, it is not “feeding into the racist far-right”, has the opposite of its intended effect. It does feed into, by omission, a racist discourse on minorities. And, of course, it serves the Muslim fundamentalist far-right as well.
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Topic: The European left and the Muslim far-right