Paris Perspective #25: Exile, Islam and the shifting sands of migration - Brigitte Adès

The past decade has witnessed a tsunami of refugees fleeing conflict, making the journey towards Europe in search of a better life. Reaching its peak in 2015, the welcome refugees received was mixed, as fears of Islamist infiltration permeated the anti-migrant debate. The result was a the rise of populist movements across the EU. Paris Perspective looks at exile, Islam and the shifting sands of migration through the prism of political realities, historical truths and contemporary literature.

Migration has become one of the most hotly debated political issues of modern times. From the building of the wall along the US-Mexico border to the razor-wire fences rolled out across Eastern European frontiers, arguments over how a deluge of traumatised migrants will impact the status quo of affluent states have been divisive.

Proponents of the universal declaration of human rights are squarely pitched against a fearful indigenous population who see the influx as an existential threat. 

The fear of radical Islam taking hold in Europe was compounded by a series of terrorist attacks across the continent, one of the most notable being the 13 November 2015 attacks across Paris in which 131 people were murdered. 

So can Islam coexisit in the liberal democracies that emerged from the ashes of World War II? 

The novel Exiles from Paradise explores the confrontation between enlightened Islam and radicalism.

Author Brigitte Adès, who is London bureau chief with Politique Internationale, felt compelled to put pen to paper after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, as Western societies found it difficult to distinguish between radicalised Islamists and the Muslims that have been living in Western counties for generations. 

"I felt that it was very unfair, and it was going to lead to a lot of problems," Adès remarks. "So I thought the best way was to write a story to show their their side of the story, their side of the problem of identity, [what] they feel when they were coming to live here, or were born here."

This sense of "disconnect" is a common thread when looking at integration into European democracies. "They felt neither from there, neither from here," says Adès.

"And they had to find a place in their societies. And our part was very important to play ... our part to actually welcome these people. And so the best way was to get them to be understood. And the best way to do that was to write a novel."

Multi-culturalism and intergration

The key for the author is to make people understand migrants' culture and where they come from.

Exiles from Paradise is a tale of two Franco-Iranian friends, Farhad and Reza, who take diverging interpretations of Islam and the historical divergences the religion has taken. It looks at the challenges of what being marginalised means in a Western society.  

Yet when dealing with migration, France and Britain have two very distinct approaches that have been the subject of debate for decades.  

Multi-culturalism in the UK versus full integration in France. Both models are flawed, but does one system work better than the other?

First and foremost, says Adès, Muslims in Britain are much better off. "I have lived in both countries for a long time," she says "so I see the communities that we create in the UK. [It may be] very comfortable for Muslims, but they feel that they're living in a minute Islamabad.

"They are totally ostracised from the rest of the population. They're tolerated. They're welcome. But they're not integrated. As a result, it leads to problems."

And there is still a discrepancy as to whether the French experience or the UK experience works for Muslims. "It doesn't work very well," Adès asserts.

No matter where you are, the author says, "if you feel that you're completely ignored ... some individuals become totally mad. And they'd rather do bad deeds than [do nothing] at all. And that's what leads to extremism."

Politically liberal, religiously radical?

Adès finds that Muslims in France are much more traditional in their approach to Islam. As a result, integration takes longer because there is a lack of openness.

Speaking anecdotally about a conversation with a Muslim taxi driver in Paris: "He was a very mainstream man. And we're talking about everything. We agreed in a lot of things on politics and international politics.

But when discussing the arrival of an Islamist regime in Pakistan, he believed the implementation of brutal laws made the country better: "He was saying they now the cut off the hands of thieves; they cut the throats of rapists. That's what should be done in France!"

"So you see," Adès continues, "this man who had a fantastic [liberal insight] became very extreme."

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Getting to the crux of this duality between modern democracy and radical narratives among Muslims brought Adès into the heart of Islamic communities where the insidious nature of radicalization in ‘normal’ mosques became apparent. 

"I wanted to research about Islam and the way it was preached, because I thought it was cool. And I was in the UK. So I went to a lot of mosques. And I went to bookstores at the mosques," she says.

"I saw that Sunni and Shiite were talking to each other, they were very friendly, and everything was fine. Then I realised that a lot of the books that were there were very subversive.

"There were books about jihad, the fact that you shouldn't be integrating - because if you integrate, you're a bad Muslim - and things that I thought were very subversive because these Muslims are there to stay.

"They have to be integrated, they have to be part of the UK."

She also points to the fact that there are spies in the mosques who report what is being preached to their financial backers. If the "money men" - usually Saudi-linked proponents of Wahhabism - don't like what they hear, the Imam will lose his job. 

Echoes of exile

Brigitte Adès' family history is itself steeped in stories of displacement and migration. So as a French writer and journalist living in London, does she identify as a migrant? 

"I feel like an expat because I feel very profoundly European and French. But it took a while, as I was a third generation Sephardic Jew living in France.

"The French are very welcoming when people are assimilating, which my grandparents did. But my grandparents were still migrants. My parents were born in France, so they were more ingrained into French system and the culture was totally French.

"We have no idea of speaking Greek - because we came from Rhodes, Greece, but also [going back to] 1492 after Spanish Jews were expelled by Isabella the Catholic." she explains. 

Adès still feels French but is still affected by her family history of exile: "I really feel for these people, I really want them to understand the concept of the society where they are in now. To be able to feel comfortable." 

When it comes to a sense of belonging in France, how does the anti-migrant shift to the far-right in French politics make her feel?

"I'm upset by the way it's using the fear of a migrant invasion to play for their own benefit. And I think it's sad," Adès laments.

"I think it's sad that it works. I see that Brexit occurred because there was this horrible poster pretending that there would be hoards of migrants from Syria - and [Britain] was not even in Schengen. So it was ridiculous that they were doing that but it it worked.

"I think there is a big problem," Adès concludes. "I don't think it's a just and fair game, it's actually dangerous. But it works and that's what I'm upset with, especially someone like Zemmour who comes from an immigrant background himself.

"He's using fear and is pushing the right buttons." 

Watch full video here

Written, produced and presented by David Coffey.

Recorded and edited by Vincent Pora and Erwan Rome.

Brigitte Adès is the London bureau chief with Politique Internationale and author of “Exiles from Paradise” published in English by Arcadia Books.