Book after book, the Quebec writer and political scientist of Algerian origin Djemila Benhabib dissects with the consistency of a metronome the ramifications of political Islam, which she considers deadly for Western democracies and critical thinking. His essay Islamophobia, my eye! is no exception to the rule. This time, the one who is now based in Belgium dwells, as the title of her book indicates, on the notion of Islamophobia, which she denounces as a real “intellectual scam”.
Djemila Benhabib, born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, to an Algerian father and a Greek-Cypriot mother, traveled from Brussels to Montreal to accompany the release of her new book, of which she fully assumes the rebellious title , in the same vein as his previous essay My life against Quran.
“Islamophobia has become a fabricated alibi to gag freedom of expression, she says in an interview for The duty. Behind this word hides a very specific goal on the part of the extremists: that of blocking any critical debate by using the delicate question of political Islam. »
It stipulates that the term Islamophobia — which literally means fear of Islam — has emerged from public debate since the attacks of September 11, 2001. However, the polysemous concept can also express the rejection of Muslims. The author specifies at the same time to obviously make the difference between the criticism of ideas and the hatred of people, the latter being ” condemnable “, she notes.
” Do not mix everything up. I have nothing against believers, but I think there is a political agenda on the part of people or organizations to make people believe that those who are critical of Islam are fueling hatred of Muslims. »
But racism does not exist when you criticize a religion, she believes. “We must be able to question dogmatic concepts, denounce any religious drift or even laugh at a belief without being labeled Islamophobic. »
Assassination of Samuel Paty
Benhabib speaks in his essay of a “victim discourse” set up in the name of respect for a Muslim “sensitivity”. “The effects of this strategy, maintained by a certain media and academic elite who consider Muslims as oppressed and dominated, are harmful since they undermine our freedoms. Moreover, it imprisons Muslims in an identity prison in contradiction with the universality of rights. »
It is not fortuitous that the book opens with the assassination of Samuel Paty, which was the trigger for the writing of this book. In October 2020, the French history-geography teacher was beheaded in the Paris suburbs by Abdoullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old Russian refugee of Chechen origin. “This professor was the victim of a lynching campaign on social networks orchestrated by associations for the defense of Muslims. They accused him of being an Islamophobe because he dared to show a caricature of Charlie Hebdo in his civics class. »
The secular activist points out that she herself was accused of being an Islamophobe during her career in Quebec, particularly during the 2012 and 2014 elections, where she ran under the Parti Québécois banner, during the period of the Charter of Values, without however winning the votes. His positions on the place of the Islamic veil in public institutions or in education have also earned him several legal proceedings.
“They wanted to discredit me and exclude me because I defend the idea of a strict separation of religion and state. But what I say in my book is that we should not be afraid to talk about Islam, if only to perpetuate the heritage of the Enlightenment which is vital in order to maintain our rational spirit and our freedom of conscience. »
The pages of his incisively written essay are dotted with more personal passages. Inhabited by a strong “desire to testify”, she tells the story of her many fights against the rise of rigorous currents and organizations, whether in Belgium, but also in France and Quebec. For example, it relates the journeys of young Belgians who have decided to distance themselves from the Muslim religion. “They are under social pressure which forces them to lead a double life. They wanted to cut ties, but the influence of their environment prevents them from openly displaying their convictions. »
Lead screed in Quebec
His book sounds like a warning against the real dangers of the rise of political Islam, which tries to graft the concept of Islamophobia into laws and public policies here or elsewhere. By way of argument, she looks back on her youth in Oran in the 1990s, plagued by violence against women and the rise of religious extremism. “My family was sentenced to death by the Islamic Front of Armed Jihad. We first took refuge in France and then I went to settle in Quebec. My work on political Islam was not born yesterday, it began when I was living as a teenager in Algeria. »
The political scientist defines herself as a free-thinker against any attempt to boycott speech. Based in Brussels, she is now project manager for the Center for Secular Action. She admits finally having the “means to act” in the various files that concern her. She says she left Quebec three years ago partly because of the climate of censorship that reigned, according to her, at the time. “There were the controversies of the shows Kanata and slav, she recalls. I felt more in my place here, because I felt that by muzzling freedom of expression I could no longer act positively in public debate. »
Has the situation improved here since he left for Europe? Not really, she underlines, taking as an example this professor from the University of Ottawa who was fired after mentioning the n-word. “His case is a striking indicator of the censorship that still prevails in certain Quebec circles. »
She often meets teachers who tell her that they are “scared in their stomachs” at the idea of meeting their audience. “They are afraid to blurt out a word or say an unfortunate phrase. Everything becomes suspicious. Censorship is not only the ban, it is above all a state of mind in which we live and which makes us not feel at ease to go to the end of our thought. . This is unacceptable to me. »