A Failure of Laïcité: Analyzing the Ongoing Discrimination of French-Muslims in the 21st Century

The question of how to deal with the “Muslim problem” has once again arisen in France, opening old wounds of colonization and cultural racism. France’s rich Christian past and the historical context of the French-Algerian conflict are key players in the modern suffering of Muslims in French Society. Its colonization of Africa included nations such as Morocco, Indochina, Madagascar and notably in this context, Algeria in 1830. In their valiant fight for independence, the National Liberation Front was launched by Algerians and resulted in a bloody struggle that still haunts the Muslim-French relations in modern France. Though Algeria achieved its independence in 1962, the overall negative attitude towards immigrants from the region remains. Beyond the impact of colonization, the imbalanced living conditions of Muslims and their fellow Frenchmen, as seen by the French banlieues, have turned into a hunting ground for jihadists. The skewed standard of living, exacerbated by the predatory manner of jihadists, suggests that the French be held under a standard of collective responsibility. Thus, under the failing social constructs of the banlieue, Abdelmajid Hannoum’s article “Cartoons, Secularism, and Inequality,” published following the attack on Charlie Hebdo, speaks to the means by which the French ideals of fraternity and equality do not apply to the Muslim populace on the basis of historical animosity and ingrained Islamophobia. Moreover, failure of the French government to unbiasedly enforce their policy of complete secularism plays into the discrimination against Muslims and interferes with the performance of religious traditions, such as in the case of the 2004 ban, which unjustly prevents females from wearing their hijabs, burkas and niqabs. As addressed in The Republic Unsettled: Muslim French and the Contradictions of Secularism by Mayanthi Fernando, there had been attempts to police the religious headwear of Muslim women previously which calls into question the validity of France’s claim to secularism. Legislation like the ban of 2004 allows for blatant discrimination. Unchecked, these factors lead to violent outbursts of extremist retaliation, which is followed by the notion of collective responsibility and pushing of a narrative that holds all Muslims as potential terrorists. Through media, unchecked publications run rampant with this damaging ideal, supporting islamophobia to help to justify discrimination. In the instance of the Charlie Hebdo attack, the common narrative pointed to the attack occurring from born and bred Muslims, but in reality, the guilty parties were driven into jihadism by a number of failings in social service programs. To supplement the research and cold fact, the novel I Die by This Country by Fawzia Zouari, which is based on a real French headline, speaks to the ongoing, every day struggle that French Muslims still endure. There is an evident link between the lasting economic, political and social inequalities faced by 21st century French-Muslims and their historical conflicts with French imperialism and deep-rooted Christian attitudes. The influence of history on the struggle of French Muslims in the 21st century is displayed by the grouping of Muslims into lower income communities, as well as headlines of police violence and anti-Muslim attitudes taken on by political leaders. The conflicts faced by Muslims within the French state is not secularism and until all citizens are, in the eyes of the state, regarded as French first and foremost, conflicts of violence and terror will continue to gain a foothold.

“The Torture of Colonization and the Holocaust: Multidirectional Memory in The Nature of Blood”

In this paper, I read Caryl Phillips’s 1997 post-colonial The Nature of Blood as a novel that exemplifies Michael Rothberg’s theory of “multidirectional memory.” Rothberg’s theory, which argues against the dominant competitive model of memory in the United States, asserts that memory is a “productive, intercultural dynamic” (Rothberg 3). In other words, memories of different groups of people, specifically African-Americans and Holocaust survivors in his essay, are intertwined and inform each other in a modern setting. Phillips’s novel depicts a relationship between the Holocaust and colonization through the use of multiple narratives interwoven throughout the novel. Those narratives begin with the Stern family, specifically Eva Stern, a survivor of a Nazi death camp who eventually commits suicide, and Eva’s uncle Stephan, a man who abandoned his family in order to join Israel and who eventually regrets his decision. The novel also explores other lives: Othello, the Moor of Shakespeare’s Othello before the events of the play during the early modern period; three Jews falsely accused of the murder of a Christian boy in the town of Portobuffole during the 15th century; Malka, a struggling Ethiopian Jew in Israel during Operation Solomon in 1991. The painful and bloody similarities in the relationship between the Holocaust and colonization are created through the nonlinearity of time and the refutation of modernity, which combine to depict the still ongoing consequences of genocide and colonization. The invalidation of modernity, which is the notion that humanity is forever moving toward a better civilized future, is significant because modernity is a lie despite some people’s belief otherwise. The nonlinearity is evidenced through the novel’s traversing of multiple historical periods. As Rothberg notes, it constellates these different histories in order to emphasize their commonalities. This paper extends this insight by focusing on the centuries of othering described in the novel that have resulted in the tragic relationship they share and the involvement of canonized works such as Shakespeare’s plays and The Diary of Anne Frank. The Nazis were not the first people to decide that Jews needed to be isolated and killed, though that does not make Eva’s story any less disheartening. Stephan was not the first Jewish man trying to achieve something better for his people and, ignoring any possible success or failure on the matter, he is unable to reap any potential rewards for his sacrifices. Othello was destroyed in Shakespeare’s play, but the novel describes his treatment and the internalized racism that led to those fateful events. The three Jews were killed senselessly because of a rumor despite doing everything in their power to survive. Malka, the youngest character in a temporal sense, is merely the latest depiction of the combined racism and anti-Semitism that has ruled the European world for centuries. If modernity were true, then the treatment of all of these characters would improve over linear time and the presence of racism and anti-Semitism would vastly decrease; however, that is not the case. All of these characters also survive a tragedy and/or assimilate if the dominant culture is to be believed; however, the novel demonstrates how monstrously untrue that lie is in actuality.

The Chinese Communist Party and the Uyghurs: Securitization and How Ethnic Minorities are Oppressed in an Multi-Ethnic State

Since the beginning of the War on Terror in 2001, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has convinced its own populace as well as foreign countries that increasing security measures in the Xinjiang region are necessary. In 2014, in response to terror attacks, the Chinese Government announced the “Strike Hard Campaign Against Violent Terrorism” aimed at the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and more specifically the Uyghur ethnic minority. This paper will analyze the oppression of the Uyghurs in China through securitization theory and the political and ethnic theories to construct a better understanding of how large multi-ethnic states legitimize oppressing minority groups within their own country. The findings are that through a combination of Han-ethnocentrism, internal political control and the redefinition of Uyghur resistance to cultural assimilation as a security issue of “Islamic extremism” the CCP can justify the incarceration and indoctrination of the Uyghurs. The international Community despite its acknowledgement of human rights abuses is ill equipped to confront ethnic oppression by big states such as China due to a lack of appropriate legal structures, concepts and definitions on the international level.

Public Opinion in the United States and Hungary: How Trump and Orbán have Manufactured the Debate over Refugees

This research paper is inspired by the author’s recent experience interning with US Together – Cleveland, a non-profit refugee resettlement agency that provides services before, during, and immediately after refugees’ arrival. It will utilize a humanitarian approach to the topic of public opinion and perception of refugees in the United States. In order to put these findings in the context of world refugee response, Hungary will be considered as another case study. This will include a look into the history of refugees in both countries, as well as the recent policy changes by both the Trump and Orban administrations respectively. This is a critical topic in today’s increasingly globalized world as there appears to be negative attitudes to waves of refugees arriving in both countries. The purpose of closely following the Trump and Orban policies will be to determine whether the vitriol espoused by these leaders is a result of those feelings already being present in the population that elected them, or if their cult of personalities have popularized the peoples’ perceptions of immigrants and refugees. This paper will explore the historical, economic, and social factors that relate to public opinion of refugees. This paper finds that it is most likely that Trump and Orban are microphones of their electorate. While they themselves might hold these views, they were elected on xenophobic platforms because enough people also held these beliefs.

The British Smuggling Dilemma: 1698-1784

By the late 17th century, Great Britain had a major smuggling problem, initially in illegally exported wool but later imported teas and French brandies. The problem grew to its peak in the mid 18th century and caused enormous financial loss to the government. This paper analyzes, among other contemporary documents, the 1767 account from Sir Stephen T. Janssen to argue that the problem was created by high taxes on teas and politically-motivated attempts by the crown to popularize gin. Even during time of war, smuggling between Great Britain and France continued. Adept tactics, aid from local townspeople, and notorious violence from smuggling gangs all proliferated the problem. Despite parliamentary efforts amidst the War of Austrian Succession to stop it, smuggling activity was not truly curbed until 1784, when Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger lowered taxes on imported teas.

I am Fascinated by What is Beautiful, Strong, Healthy” Leni Riefenstahl, Gender, and Absolved Guilt

Public discourse around the Nazi regime is typically surrounded by its doctrine of hatred and violence; traditional gender roles and these traits have rendered fascism a decidedly masculine pursuit—which Nazi doctrine wholeheartedly supported. Many men are to blame for the atrocities of the Holocaust and are rightfully criticized and despised for their actions; however, though a major contributor to the fascist ideology through her propaganda, filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl has remained extremely controversial. While scholars and critics have criticized Leni Riefenstahl’s films as emblemizing a fascist aesthetic, many have nonetheless praised her as an innovative artist, arguing for a separation from the person and the art. Riefenstahl’s films—primarily funded by the Nazi regime, despite her adamant dismissal of these claims—focus largely on what she calls the “beauty” of the human figure: that is, the “Aryan” bodies, whose “beauty” lied in their whiteness and able-bodied figures. Such an image represents the Nazi policy on all levels. This is especially evident in Olympia, Riefenstahl’s three-and-a-half-hour art documentary cataloguing the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The documentary employs images of bodies intended to convey ideology through supposed physical perfection, as well as narratives of nationalism and collective victory; both aspects render Olympia a film that substantially contributed (and, to this day, still contribute) to the dangerous culture of fascism and nationalism.

No Nazis in Valhalla: Understanding the Use (and Misuse) of Nordic Cultural Markers in Third Reich Era Germany

While medieval concepts are frequently used as a means for the general public to understand emerging global political institutions around the world, they also have immense capability to be purposely misused by political groups due to the generally vague and misguided understanding of these concepts by the masses. At one core of these movements is the legacy of Vikings and the misrepresentation of their history by far-right political groups, especially in mid-20th century Europe, in order to push a fictitious agenda of a prosperous, all-white race of seafaring warriors. Through the appropriation of medieval Old Norse imagery and mythology, as well as the construction of the idea of a pure Nordic race and the spread of propaganda through media by artists like Richard Wagner, the Nazi Party was able to utilize the newfound elevation of Nordic culture to legitimize its own ideas of racial purity and culture.

The Unwavering Movement: Integrating Reason into British Penal Code 1730-1823

Between the early 16th and 18th centuries, English attitude towards crime and correction were based on the strong held belief that faith and religion were the only cure to immorality. Lawmakers began to threaten citizens with capital punishment for menial crimes such as petty theft and begging. Resulting of a moral panic, lawmakers turned to the deterrence to dissuade citizens from partaking in criminal activity. The list of crimes punishable by death in England rose from 50 offenses in 1688 to over 220 in 1815. This article explains the origins of the Bloody Code and how Enlightenment-Era thought transformed the penal code in England.