Thank God... I'm not French

After the infamous Burqa ban another ban has now come into force in France. The ban on praying in the street which came into effect yesterday again highlighted France's problems assimilating its 5-million-strong Muslim community, which lacks prayer space.

People offering Namaaz on a street in Paris

Growing up in Delhi, I don’t remember the last time when I had prayed inside a mosque on Eid. It’s the same in every city on every Friday. People spilling over onto the streets, roads, by-lanes, school grounds, government land, whatever, wherever, every where.

I’ve seen Hindu shopkeepers in Chandni chowk reverentially sweeping their shop fronts to make it fit for Namaaz. Never have I heard someone grumbling about it & never anyone including the saffron brigade has labelled it as Islamization of the country.

Namaaz in Old Delhi

We in India understand (thankfully), that praying on the streets in not a show of strength but more a forced necessity. Friday prayers & other special prayers like Eid see Muslims swarming to mosques & since everyone cannot be accommodated inside people spill out on the streets. This is very common in every country where Muslims reside & every week cities like Lahore & Dhaka come to standstill due to this very phenomenon.

The continuous anti Muslims legalizations in France & other European countries have damaged the very secular fabric of the society that they purportedly protect. The banning of face veils or Namaaz on streets once again will give hardliners within the Muslim community to raise the spectre of Crusades pitting Muslims against others.

Thank God (or Allah in my case) that I was not born in France. Chandni Chowk will be any day better than Champ Elysse & more so on Fridays.