To a general surprise, at the end of November 2009, 57% of Swiss voters who turned up approved the initiative proposed by the populist right to make the construction of minarets illegal. Arguing for the need to respect the principle of secularism, the following year France adopted legislation that with effect from 11 April 2011 outlawed the covering of the face in public. The same year, it was then Belgium’s turn in July to introduce a similar law. Frequently residing in Pakistan in recent years, I noted the questioning that these measures provoked. Many of those with whom I spoke emphasised their attachment to a secularism that nonetheless respected religious freedom; they regretted the discriminatory steps taken in Europe.

Was this oversensitivity consequent to western propaganda accompanying the American response to the incident of 11 September 2001 that had instrumentalised rhetoric about women? Many raised a concern, whether Islam, in the West had in fact become the target of a witch-hunt. Annoyed by this western over-simplification, they recalled that the situation of Muslim women, taking into account the diversity of communities making up the Ummah, as well as the social position of their members, was far from uniform. 

I thus came to think about the perception that East and West had of each other. Such an exercise may allow one to feed a debate that has come to be monopolised by far-Right groups in Europe. With the exception of the Left, the traditional French political parties – concerned about both maintaining and expanding their support – make use of the fear of fundamentalist Islam, however much of a minority it represents. Few remember the discipline that the first immigrants from North Africa – at the time an important source of labour – demonstrated as they maintained the hope of slowly climbing the social ladder. Was it a legacy of the 'values' that prevailed in the colonial era?

The French labour market remains reluctant to offer higher positions to those perceived as Muslims (devout or not) than those occupied by their parents. Another worrying aspect is the level of unemployment that is faced by these vulnerable of North African origin who in turn attribute their lack of success to what they consider the hypocrisy of the republican triology of liberté, égalité and fraternité.