Muslims in the news only when they ' re behind the
gun
Khaled A Beydoun
Last updated : 5 hours ago
The story of the police officer killed in the Charlie Hebdo attack is
no longer in the headlines - why ?
Ahmed Merabat was the first of the 12 innocents killed in
Wednesday's targeted attack on the French satirical magazine,
Charlie Hebdo. The 42-year -old French Muslim policeman was
executed on the sidewalk of Paris ' 11 th borough - the enclave
where Charlie Hebdo's headquarters is located .
Merabat was shot , point -blank, by one of the three assassins,
minutes before they broke into Charlie Hebdo' s offices , and
slaughtered the magazine 's top editor and celebrated
cartoonists .
The coverage of the " Paris shootings" centred almost exclusively
on Stephane Charbonnier, Georges Wolinski , Jean Cabut and
Bernard Verlhac - the prominent and unyieldingly provocative
minds behind Charlie Hebdo .
The first victim, Ahmed Merabat , was purged from the headlines.
The political and representational ramifications that come with
highlighting Merabat 's victimhood cannot be ignored . First , it
complicates the broader narrative that rigidly caricatures
Muslims as terrorists , outsiders and marginals . And second,
refutes the state-sponsored indictment of Muslims in France as
perpetrators of subversion , instead of law-abiding citizens .
Muslim and French
Apart from the obvious tragedy , the Charlie Hebdo killings
manifest the baseline that Muslim identity is only relevant - and
indeed newsworthy - when the subject is standing behind the
gun . Not in front of it . In most everywhere in the world , but
especially France - the architect of modern Islamophobia.
Muslims comprise a considerable percentage of the French
polity. Islam is the nation 's second biggest religion, and figures
place the Muslim population at 5 percent to 10 percent of
France's 66 million citizens .
Islam's size, and demographical rise, has spurred some of the
most draconian policies against Muslims in modern times. The
headscarf ban in 2004, followed by illegalisation of the niqab , or
face covering, in 2010, codified core Islamophobic ideas . This
legislation also functioned as a firm and fervent declaration by
the state that Muslim and French identities were at odds and
irreconcilable.
The French laicite model provided the structural underpinnings
to carry forward Islamophobic legislation . But more nefariously ,
guise it under the banner of state-sponsored secularism .
Expectedly , the religious expression bans disparately impacted
French Muslims. In addition, they chilled bodily and verbal
expressions of Muslim identity . The state aim of compelling
secularisation upon its Muslim citizenry was based upon the
civilisational binary , and ultimatum , to choose between "Islam
and the West", "Muslim lands or France".
Despite this ultimatum handed down from the state, the
overwhelming majority of French Muslims exercised their faith
amid pervasive bigotry. And simultaneously , embraced their
national identities as Frenchmen and women .
Extreme voices from within the state, and French civil society ,
looked to the three terrorists as representatives of the nation 's 3
to 6 million Frenchmen and women . Collateral indictment of
French Muslims, by politicians and media alike , infused with an
already fervent culture of Islamophobia on the ground , will surely
incite violent backlash against Muslims and Muslim
communities in the country .
French Islamophobia
Although unimaginable before Wednesday, French Islamophobia
stands to become far more severe and strident . The conflation of
the terrorist 's acts with France' s Muslim population , from the
perspective of hatemongers , holds the latter vicariously liable .
This connection, that links three deviant actors with an entire
faith and millions of disconnected citizens , will fuel rabid
backlash against Muslims in France, and more than likely , claim
additional victims .
Centring Muslim victims , instead of villains , would mitigate the
backlash considerably. In addition , focusing on the heroics of
Merabat , instead of the evil of the three terrorists , asserts - and
inserts - a competing narrative that France's Muslims are
everyday citizens : Citizens with jobs , families, and
interpretations of Islam that condemn violence , and contradict
the malignant caricature of the faith constructed by the state.
Ahmed Merabat was more than a victim. He was far more than
merely a Muslim . He , in both life and especially in death, stands
as an archetype for the overwhelming majority of French
Muslims.
A law-abiding citizen, Merabat harmonised his religious identity
with the responsibilities of being a Frenchman. He was both
French and Muslim , an existential integration eviscerated by the
longstanding Islamophobic discourse in France, and ignored by
the media firestorm following the attack .
Although the first victim of the attack , Ahmed Merabat ' s story
was shot down from the news headlines. And his name and face
absent from the ongoing stream of reports and narratives
emanating from Paris on Wednesday . Inserting him into the
story, and countering the barrage of vile Muslim representations
with a rebuttal of victimhood and valour , will likely save lives in
France.
Most importantly, retelling the story from the perspective of
Ahmed Merabat will not only reveal that Muslim and French
identity are reconcilable , but also resilient.
Khaled A Beydoun is an assistant professor of law at the Barry
University Dwayne O Andreas School of Law . He is a native of
Detroit.
http://m.aljazeera.com/story/201518121649556792
I'm sorry for the non-alignment of the text.