Two rays and one vertex. Wikicommons/ CMBJ. Some rights reserved.Surveys in France reveal that a small but increasing number of Muslims are associating themselves with the ideas of the leader of the French far-right political party Front National (National Front), Marine Le Pen - an unexpected fact understandably baffling to many leftwing people. “Muslims” in Europe, by their very nature, are considered to be the natural allies of the European Left, for the reason that they were oppressed by the Right. How could anyone vote for his or her own oppressor, for those who hate them!
That “Muslims” are gradually slipping away from the monopoly of the left to the trenches of the enemy, even theoretically, should cast some doubt on the premises of leftist discourse: so, did that happen?
It did not; or more precisely, it could not. For the left, remaining dogmatically tied to the conviction that “Muslims ought to vote for us”, is not in a position to realise that Europe is no longer living in a world where it alone is the protagonist of history, where it is the one and only centre of the world. Without understanding our postcolonial epoch for what it is, the left can only see “Muslims” who turn their face to Le Pen as a mistake, a misunderstanding that will in time correct itself – that is, “Muslims” will eventually realize that it is the left to whom they belong.
