As protests in France turned violent late last week, the French far right quickly resorted to racist language to blame the Muslim youth for the violence. Weeks earlier, when thousands of migrants tried to enter the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from neighbouring Morocco, the Spanish far right spoke of an organised “invasion” by Moroccans. United States President Donald Trump has also chimed in, claiming that this is about “Islam wanting to take over”.
While the far right’s readiness to exploit crises to fuel Islamophobia is to be expected, the idea that Islam and Muslims are to blame for Europe’s growing woes is no longer reserved for that extreme of the European political spectrum. Last week, while student protests were heating up in France, the European Parliament quietly passed a resolution “on the need for an EU strategy to counter Islamist entryism and the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood network”. The text was tabled by the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), the largest group in the parliament, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hails from.
It passed with 381 votes in favour, 167 against and 15 abstentions. Four other groups backed the EPP almost unanimously: the far-right Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations, the liberal Renew Europe, and the European Conservatives and Reformists. The Social Democrats, the Left and the Greens mostly voted against but could not stop it.
The resolution, which draws on a highly problematic report by the French government on “political Islamism”, makes a number of flawed claims that have wide-ranging implications for Muslim communities. It defines “Islamist entryism” as “a political strategy of influence, progressive structuring, institutional penetration and ideological legitimisation”. It claims that “Islamist influence operates through a broad and fragmented ecosystem of associations, foundations and cultural, educational, religious, charitable, university, youth, anti-discrimination or social action structures”.
More specifically, it says that “diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-discrimination frameworks may be diverted as vectors of institutional legitimisation, by integrating a politicised religious identity into legitimate causes for the protection of minorities”. In other words, networks like the Muslim Brotherhood “infiltrate” European societies through anti-Islamophobia initiatives. The resolution is not binding and European Union member states do not have to implement it.
Its call to put the Muslim Brotherhood and affiliated individuals and entities on a terror list is unlikely to be implemented across Europe, given the movement’s renunciation of violence as a political tool. However, the resolution still gives legitimacy to an ideological framework that can have grave implications for Muslim communities. It puts under suspicion Muslim institutions and organisations that operate independently of the state and presents the inclusion of Muslim civil society in public activity as a form of infiltration.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
