Who Are These Soldiers of Allah?

Djemila Benhabib is the author of Ma vie à contre-Coran (“My life against the Koran”). She is the daughter of a Greek Cypriot mother and an Algerian father, and was raised in Oran, Algeria. She now lives in Quebec, and the interview below is from a Quebec television program.

Many thanks to Bear for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:


A full transcript is below the jump:

00:00				Hello Jemilla, Welcome to ‘Everyone talks about it’. You are the author of.…
00:04				a successful book called, ‘My Life Against Koran’ that appeared in …
00:08				2009. A piece of art concerning the reasonable accommodation…
00:12				you are here tonight concerning a new essay called, ‘The Soldiers…
00:16				of Allah’ The assault on the West. 10 years after the…
00:20				911, you are saying that the West is moving towards losing its battle…
00:24				against Islam that is itself going from victory to victory.
00:28				Who are these soldiers of Allah that are assaulting the West and to what victory do you refer?
00:32				So, the Soldiers of Allah are …
00:36				people that want to change the configuration …
00:40				of our social and political structure in the West.
00:44				these are people that understand perfectly the rhetoric of the West.
00:48				They understand our Human Rights. These are people the majority of them were born in the West.
00:52				And that have put themselves in service of this ideology.
00:56				Ideology of political Islam. So it is this battle that we are losing.
01:00				We refuse to admit that there is a battle so we cannot win…
01:04				when we are in denial of reality.
01:08				Islam is not a monolithic block. According to you, there are two Islams. What are they?
01:12				There is the one dating back to my grandmother, which means…
01:16				of peace and tolerance. Of open mindedness…
01:20				and there is a political Islam. The one I fight…
01:24				is the political one. It wants to impose an ideology …
01:28				of death an ideology of violence and ideology of discrimination…
01:32				a barbaric ideology.
01:36				[Who is the Muslim Brotherhood] They are a brotherhood …
01:40				born in Egypt in 1928 and had …
01:44				as mandated, to propagate political Islam…
01:48				in South Asia principally. Egypt, Syria, …
01:52				and the Magreb. In 1960 and …
01:56				the one that inherited the brotherhood has installed himself …
02:00				in the West in Switzerland and for him…
02:04				the mandate was to propagate this ideology in the West.
02:08				Mainly, slowly but surely, it is what he has done. He has succeeded…
02:12				to create community centers up to …
02:16				North America finally.
02:21				One of the founding fathers of the Muslim Brotherhood is the grandfather of Tareq Ramedan
02:25				who you reproached to want to pass off as a reformist, all while saying …
02:29				conservative statements. The popularity of Ramadan make you anxious…
02:33				why? It is a man that defends a Koranic literalist…
02:37				and he does not say…
02:41				for example, abrogate amputation, stoning, polygamy are examples…
02:45				the repudiation, the attitudes about homosexuality,
02:49				So he says that he is a modern person.
02:53				but as a parallel, as an example,
02:57				for you, on stoning. So here is a dichotomy
03:01				Here is the difference between what he is saying and what he is really.
03:05				You believe that the islamization of Quebec society is in real danger…
03:09				you put to light acquaintances between a certain left islamist, how…
03:13				Does the Quebec left participate in the process of political Islam?
03:17				The Quebec left unfortunately participates…
03:21				at normalizing and depoliticizing certain problems. As an example…
03:25				like the problem regarding the Islamic veil, the veil is a political symbol…
03:29				and the left essentially (initials of something)
03:33				are telling us that it is a piece of clothing like any other…
03:37				but it is not, it is indignation, it is segregation of women
03:41				however in the Middle East, this piece of clothing…
03:45				it is imposed on women. So we cannot consider it as a …
03:49				simple garment. It is a symbol of an ideology. It is why…
03:53				That’s why Khomeini has imposed it to the women of his country.
03:57				I think it is an element that we have to keep in mind in all analysis.
04:01				What problem does wearing or showing religious symbols in Quebec in public places cause?
04:05				Well, we are defined by our religious identity
04:09				We become religious subjects however we are, before all…
04:13				human beings. Above our religious identity…
04:17				and that is what is interesting. For us humans…
04:21				this formidable interaction we can have, above…
04:25				our ethnic and religious loyalties. To me, there is only one family that matters…
04:29				it is the one of ideas, the one of values.
04:33				You accuse the partisanship of the open ‘Laicité’ like Gerard Bouchard, Charles Taylor…
04:37				Quebec solidaire, the federation of Quebec women, of playing the game of…
04:41				integrity and to abandon the majority of Muslim women that they pretend to defend…
04:45				to demand the adoption of a charter of ‘Laicité of Quebec’ so …
04:49				it’s laicité in public and religion in private.
04:53				Absolutely yes. I think that Quebec has lived a …
04:57				extraordinary chapter of its history through …
05:01				the quiet revolution and it’s a heritage…
05:05				that I carry within me with great pride. And that I am …
05:09				resolute to defend because I find…
05:13				it has modernized Quebec and has given Quebec an absolutely extraordinary face.
05:17				Richard Martineau is in perfect agreement with you.…
05:21				His colleague from the [newspaper] Patrick Lagace…
05:25				is saying the exact opposite. I quote him: “I am sorry …
05:29				I am a useful idiot to the ‘Joan of Arc’ Belle Habib …
05:33				but I do not see ‘galloping Islamization’ here now”
05:37				Other quote: “Sometimes the book written by …
05:41				Mrs. Belle Habib is read as a masterpiece of the hysteric
05:45				of the ‘Red Menace’ of the 1950s recycled with the 21st century...”
05:49				How do you react to this?
05:53				This makes me smile. Honestly, we expect from a writer …
05:57				within a minimum of knowledge whatever the topic is,
06:01				However I did not see any. We expect a minimum of knowledge and probity.
06:06				We expect a solid argument. It took me 15 years to write …
06:10				‘My Life Against Koran’. It took me a lot of books to read.
06:14				It took me a lot of conferences. I had to listen to. It took me a lot of meetings.
06:18				It took me a lot of trips. I think there should be…
06:22				a certain maturity, a certain lucidity when we…
06:26				talk about themes that are as complex as these. It is very sad to see.
06:30				...that it wasn’t seen in this review. So for me, it is an unfortunate…
06:34				review. (Congratulations Ma’am)
06:38
06:42				Do you have pressure, do you have people that don’t like you amongst those people?
06:46				Well listen Danny. Let us not tell ourselves…
06:50				some stories. I mean if there are so few people that come from this …
06:54				culture that speak up, to put the finger on…
06:58				certain anomalies it is because …
07:02				it is for precise reasons. It is evident since 1989…
07:06				since the condemnation to death of Salman Rushdie…
07:10				All writers know the risks
07:14				that they take. So I know, yes I know…
07:18				the risks. But it does not mean I will be quiet.
07:22				I want to share my experience. It is an experience…
07:26				that is tragic but interesting and I especially do not want…
07:31				that the mistakes that have been made back then, in Algeria,
07:35				surly but also in Europe because i have lived in Europe. happen in Quebec…
07:39				lets not wait to be at the bottom of the cave to…
07:43				say “well its true there is a bottom”. the court case of three…
07:47				Montrealers of afghan origins to have killed 4 women of their families…
07:51				in June 2009 last week in Kingston with…
07:55				with the election of the Jury. It is premature to qualify these murderers as…
07:59				as a honor killing the hypothesis is not gone. what is a…
08:03				a honor crime? a honor crime is…
08:07				committed by a family member with collusion…
08:11				with other family members. It is premeditated on another family member…
08:15				so we judge the behavior as deviant…
08:19				that does not seem to conform to a certain norm…
08:23				that is established by the community. Is it always directed to a woman? No not always…
08:27				we can always kill the woman and her boyfriend…
08:32				also we can kill people…
08:36				because they are homosexuals it has happened before…
08:40				all people that do not show a certain conformity.
08:44				based on a line of conduct.
08:48				within a community. If you want the difference between a crime of passion and…
08:52				and a crime of honour…
08:56				in the Arab and muslim country is the fact that the community endorses it.
09:00				the crime of honour. the community does not speak…
09:04				so finally the torturer does not speak.
09:08				he is never anxious about what he does. closes his eyes.
09:12				out of fear or they are in agreement? both. yes.
09:16				honour crime are there some in Quebec?
09:20				in Canada? there are some certainly and that is what should worry you.
09:24				what I mean there are young girls, woman…
09:28				in our society that live as if they were living…
09:32				in a tribal society that is recluse…
09:36				of Pakistan and Afghanistan and unfortunately…
09:40				and I have not seen our state take seriously these honour crimes…
09:44				There has been equally the case of the honour crime of the ‘Shafia’ family…
09:48				also the case of the little (name of child) that has been …
09:52				beaten by her father and that died …
09:56				so I mean let’s not wait until there are more…
10:00				Let’s react. Because murder is …
10:04				the ultimate act. But before that, there is all this pain.
10:08				That all these women and girls have to live. I mean a control…
10:12				that is perpetual of their comings and goings, of their clothing, and of their sexuality…
10:16				of their phone, of their loves, so it is…
10:20				truly a lot of pain these girls live. And we have the responsibility…
10:24				to protect them so lets protect them.
10:28				Q: Have you ever lived this type of pain? A: No. Never.
10:32				My mother is Greek and I was raised by a father
10:36				that is a feminist-Arab because it exists so today…
10:40				I want to give homage to my father because, I say it often, I was not raised by…
10:44				a Swedish father but by an Algerian father whom …
10:48				was raised by traditional parents but that gave me everything…
10:52				that taught me to stand up and that put in my mouth…
10:56				the word ‘liberty’ and this word I conjugated daily.
11:00				For me liberty is something that is absolutely sacred. It is…
11:04				...a value to defend. Q: I see your ring, Have you won the Grey Cup?
11:08				A: What is that?
11:12				You will understand someday.
11:17				Q: What has brought you to Quebec? A: Well listen, it was a country to discover…
11:21				and I wanted to discover it. Q: And you stayed? A: Yes
11:25				...and I stayed because it is a country absolutely…
11:29				magnificent. And it is a country where I have found my inner peace.
11:33				...and my serenity, my joie-de-vivre
11:37				It’s a magnificent country so here…
11:41				that gives the want to be discovered. I don’t stop discovering it.
11:45				It’s immense, Quebec. Q: Have you gone back…
11:49				home? A: Yes yes I have. Because I have launched my book, My life against the Koran…
11:53				in Algeria. There was an editor crazy enough that agreed…
11:57				to edit and...Q: is he still sufficiently alive?
12:01				A: Yes! he is sufficiently crazy and alive to be able to edit this …
12:05				..to want to edit this book. Q: Were you well received there? A: Yes.
12:09				I was very very well received because unfortunately we…
12:13				do not speak about these Arab progresses, we speak of…
12:17				...because there are some, some lovers…
12:21				of Music, of theater, of free speech,
12:25				of liberty, simply put. So me, it is those people…
12:29				I love. And it is these people that welcome me in Algeria…
12:33				very very warmly. And every time I go back to Algeria…
12:37				it is a feast for me.
12:42				Q: Thank you very much.