Source: Davidson

Intro

– General Mattis would not be a good fit.
– US needs to look to France a case study on how the west interacts with Muslims.
– Mattis overall view on Muslims would not work in America. Especially since there isn’t that long of a history of Muslim and Americans.
– France has the largest population of Muslims in Europe and has the most interaction with them.
– The tensions in France between the “French” and the “Muslims” need to studied to see how solutions can be applied to the states.

History

– Muslims were the “other” to the west (including france)
– they were exotic and were conceived to be much different from Europeans
– Islam isn’t a Judeo-Christian religion and follows, while similar, a different set of rules
– Muslims were mostly from North Africa and the Middle East.
– Muslims were racialized on top of it and this furthered the thinking that white Europeans were better than Muslims.
– France colonized most of North Africa and had the most interaction with them.

Algeria

• Muslims were treated as non citizens in the country they were native to.
• French believed muslims could never be french, or truly secular because of their connection to their religion
• They could not give up their practices.
• So France treated Algerians as different.
• During the revolution, techniques were used to torture rebels.
• Algerian soldiers who fought in the world war were hid from history

France Today

• There is still racist rhetoric against the muslim population of France, against people who are citizens.
• They are called Africans, or immigrants, while a lot are born citizens and most Muslims are not from Africa.
• Hijab is seen as a display of Islam and a reminder how Muslims cannot be French

America, what they need to do

• France shows what it is like to have a western perspective on “eastern tradition.”
• Americans have a growing number of muslims, now as born citizens.
• There is a push to portray Muslims as a whole as terrorists or trouble, it isn’t true.
• To make Muslims the “other”, would mean to put them below what is considered a citizen.
• That is where the problem lies.
• Mattis isn’t looking to fiz the terrorist problem. But rather “bring to light” violent Islam
• Algiers is just an example of how people would react if they were put down for so long
• There has to be a dialogue with the Islam community to improve relations, not sever them.

conclusion