Excerpts from an exclusive interview published in The newspaper in 2013, granted to me by one of the greatest specialists inislamMalek Chebel, died in 2016 in Paris.
Originally from Algeria, this scholar has published about ten books, including The Lover’s Dictionary of Islamand the translation of the Koran into French.
This great scholar warned us against an Islamism that could destabilize the West.
Malek Chebel also lived under the threat of “crazy gods”, but that never affected his courage and his freedom of speech.
The assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie by a 24-year-old American of Shia Lebanese descent coincides with the first anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, which quickly reconfigured women, excluded them from school and brought the burqa back into fashion.
WHAT IS THE VEIL HIDING?
For Malek Chebel, the burqa was a “cancer” imposed on Muslims. “It is an ethnic garment belonging to a clan culture, validated by no serious Islamic theologian. »
As for the veil, he said, the woman wears it in a place of worship, out of respect and modesty because she is religious. But she shouldn’t wear it ostentatiously. “Because, he affirmed, as soon as there is exaggeration, that the woman appears everywhere, it is suspect. In his eyes, the veil is a political weapon that creates a gap between good and bad believers, making those who do not wear it disbelievers.
For Malek Chebel, it is impossible to claim feminism by believing in a vision of the world that puts women aside. The women who wear the veil in our countries showed alienation. It was not an informed choice according to the scholar. So he understood that Canadians were confused.
This intellectual leader believed that the fact of claiming individual freedom as an absolute was an obstacle for us who had not experienced religious wars in North America, which partly explains our lack of mistrust of the regard to the demands of Islamic fundamentalists living among us.
Malek Chebel, fighter for an Islam of modernity, also warned us against our lack of knowledge of Islam. It was important to know that in Islam “there is a criterion of compatibility with the place where one lives. You cannot impose your religious practices in a country where the majority is not Muslim”.
This majority defines its own identity and its own common values. “If Canadians and Quebeckers say: our culture allows everyone coming to our country to impose their practices, their burka, their veil, their harem, Canada and Quebec will be on the coals. »
SECULARITY VERSUS RELIGION
Malek Chebel was a visionary. Since then, Justin Trudeau has proclaimed that Canada is post-national. Individual freedom reigns absolutely and no prohibition of religious signs exists. Except in present-day Quebec, with its law on secularism. However, forthcoming court judgments risk rendering the ban on religious symbols unconstitutional for certain categories of citizens.
If he had survived the cancer that killed him in 2016, Malek Chebel would surely have been very sad about the rise of Islamism in Canada.