Stephen Knight

In Europe and North America, it is women of migrant Muslim descent who have taken the lead in confronting Muslim fundamentalism, this far-right political movement working under the guise of religion. Since Muslim fundamentalism opened a new front in ‘the West’ decades ago, a vast majority of these women have chosen as their preferential strategy to reclaim secularism, a secular state and secular laws – one law for all citizens. However, unlike women who challenge the Christian Right or Jewish fundamentalism, theirs is a very lonely struggle. For fear of being seen as racist or “Islamophobic” and in the name of anti-imperialism, an unholy alliance between the Muslim Right, human rights groups, left and far left parties, choruses into a simplistic defence of religious rights, minority rights, cultural rights, all taking precedence over women’s rights. Working against the tide of cultural relativism and the subsequent legal ‘accommodations’ that slowly challenge the very principle of secular democracy and equality between all citizens, women of migrant Muslim descent combat communalism and its most ugly consequence: legalizing unequal rights for different categories of citizens. They are best placed to identify the strategic steps taken by Muslim fundamentalists in ‘the West’ – demanding changes in laws, education, cultural mores, all of it leading to political representation of religion within the state -, as those are identical to what happened in their countries of origin. To their horror, they witness the replication in Europe and North America of situations that they themselves, or their parents, fled from. In that sense, women of migrant Muslim descent offer a veritable South-North transfer of political competence. They should be heard.