Macron's war on Muslims could close France's window to Central Asia Experts ponder the reverberations of Islamophobia

The international scientific conference "Protecting Diversity: Combating Islamophobia in 2024", held last week in Baku, brought together academics, experts from international organisations, religious figures and more than 130 representatives of non-governmental organisations from 32 countries. The conference was, to say the least, a platform for serious debate, open dialogue, the presentation of research and the exposure of Western anti-Islam policies. The event was co-organised by the Baku International Centre for Multiculturalism, the Centre for Analysis of International Relations, the G20 Forum for Interreligious Dialogue and the Baku Initiative Group.

Caliber.Az's correspondent spoke with political scientists from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan about the state of anti-Islamic sentiment in today's society.

In the opinion of Umar Mutaliyev (Bishkek), candidate of political sciences, the international conference on combating Islamophobia is a new stage of self-determination for the countries of the Islamic world.

"The importance of this event is great because the Baku conference has raised an extremely painful issue, which for many years has lived in Western countries in the form of prejudices, elaborate policies and actively planted ideology of society, as in France, for example. But all these points must be shared. After all, the prejudices of many representatives of Western countries, the rejection of a religion and way of life alien to them, often shape the policies of certain states. It is no secret that in several countries in the Western world, Muslims are subject to harassment, sometimes covert, sometimes overt, and are relegated to second-class status. Such a situation has developed in France, for example, where Macron and his government have almost declared war on Middle Easterners and Muslims from other countries. In the case of France, the situation is all the more shocking because the majority of its former colonies are Muslim countries. The Arabic population forms an important part of the French population. In many respects, this shows the absurdity of Macron's policy to persecute those who lived in Europe for many years and believed in French democracy.

But other countries in the French-speaking world, such as Belgium and Luxembourg, have similar attitudes towards Muslims. The first thing that worries me is that skilled political technicians are now using the prejudices of many Europeans to create a powerful layer of opposition to the Islamic world, and actively fuelled propaganda is becoming an element of domestic and foreign policy in a number of countries," Mutaliyev said.

According to him, that is the second stage of Islamophobia, when the anti-Muslim ideologies of countries like France begin to find active supporters in other countries of the Western world. Europe, which had been so tolerant in the past, has suddenly become prejudiced against the interests of Muslim countries.

"A striking example is the obvious bias towards defending the interests of Christian Armenia, which occupied the territory of Muslim Azerbaijan for more than thirty years. Under the influence of the pro-Armenian lobby and pressure from pro-Armenian France, the European Parliament has organised a blatant harassment of Baku now that Azerbaijan has liberated its territories. These actions are undoubtedly founded on the principle of Islamophobia and the rejection of representatives of other religions and cultures. Azerbaijan is confidently destroying these poisonous tendencies with its policy of multiculturalism. This policy also includes the proposal to discuss this issue openly, to expose the boils and wounds of this ideology.

I believe that many countries of the Islamic world should take the baton from Azerbaijan and become a tribune of harsh criticism of such phenomena. In this sense, I can confidently say that Macron's efforts to open a window to Central Asia are now being met with great caution in the countries of our region. Central Asian countries are not ready to respond to the friendship of Islamophobic France," Mutaliyev said.

Political scientist Eraj Alimov (Dushanbe) takes up this theme. He notes that the Islamophobic policies of France and several other states should be the subject of active condemnation by politicians and societies in the countries of the Islamic world.

"First of all, the blatant hypocrisy of Paris and its accomplices, who openly promote Islamophobic sentiments while at the same time calling for increased negotiations with Central Asian countries and introducing them to European values, is appalling. It sounds rude and tactless. In other words, it turns out that European governments will stop at nothing, including their ideology, to achieve their goals and interests. One of the clear interests of a country like France is access to uranium and other mineral resources in Central Asian countries.

The second goal is to have the Central Asian countries on its side through their alienation from Russia and China. And, interestingly, Macron's plans compete with similar EU and US strategies; all these gentlemen are now actively targeting our region, clearly dreaming of making it their colony.

But I think that Macron's plans will not be realised, and Paris will not achieve anything in our region," Alimov concluded.