Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/933296
maltatoday SUNDAY 28 JANUARY 2018 Interview 15 Law student SARA EZABE is one of 30 honorees recognised by Forbes for their role in influencing law and policy in Europe. Her campaign 'Redefining us' was prompted by local reactions to her wearing the 'hijab' (Muslim headscarf) in Malta... and aims to challenge a culture of fear directed at Muslims in general categories I looked into. There is no clear reporting of people who were discriminated against be- cause they were Muslim... or, for instance, because they wear the headscarf. However, two recent judgments by the European Court of Human Rights – which are be- ing discussed all over Europe – have, in my opinion, created a loophole whereby Muslims can le- gally be discriminated against. The judgement ruled that it is permis- sible to have policy banning any form of clothing or symbols that can be identified with any religion or ideology at all... and in practice, this means that employers can deny employment to someone just because they wear the headscarf. The policy would have no effect on non-Muslims, but it would affect a prospective Muslim employee. So how can people be expected to successfully integrate, if such poli- cies exist? Because at the end of the day, it's like taking part of your identity away. And I think, in the long-term, it would increase the fear. If you work in an environ- ment where other employees wear the headscarf, it will become nor- mal over time. But if we're always repressing, and creating a sterile environment where no one has the freedom even to wear whatever they like... so that nobody gets of- fended... it would create a much bigger fear in the long term. But isn't it also true that Muslims tend to take offence at non- Muslim religious symbols? There have been cases – maybe not in Malta, but certainly in other parts of Europe - where Muslims have objected to crucifixes in classrooms, for instance... But there is a problem even with that. We tend to single out only the most extreme of cases; and very often without any real knowl- edge of what's going on. I go to schools and seminars, for example, and I talk to students and teachers, and I get asked this kind of ques- tion a lot. They bring up the issue of ham in schools, or the crucifix... and I tell them, 'Do you know that the person who first complained about the crucifix in schools in Italy was an atheist, not a Mus- lim?' No one knows. It was actually an atheist mother who opposed the crucifix in Italian classrooms. Then, regarding the issue of ham sandwiches... people saw and re- acted to what the MPM said; but everything that came afterwards – the ministerial statements, etc. – were all ignored. The ministry came out with a statement saying that Muslims never complained about ham in schools. It was actu- ally something that happened in a church, and not in a school at all. There was complete confusion. All the same: I am not negating the fact that there are Muslims who are extreme. But then again, ex- tremism exists everywhere. If you look at America, there are Chris- tian extremists, too. We have to be careful not to lump everyone in the same basket. But the main prob- lem, even in this issue, remains the lack of integration. This failure to properly integrate all members of society is holding us back, and it can only result in the realisation of people's fears. Because at the end of the day, if people are not integrated, obviously there will be more extremism, not less. This emerged clearly even from cases of terrorism in Europe, involving second-generation people who – like me – come from mixed par- entage. In one case, the person's mother was French, and the father was Moroccan. When speaking about their son's terrorist act, they said that their child had never felt integrated... and was therefore at- tracted to extremist ideology, and joined ISIS. So I think it's clear that, if we continue to ignore the situation, and let it simply develop by itself... we will be faced with people's worst fears. Meanwhile, there is a tendency to think of this entrenched suspicion of Muslims as something pertaining to older generations, who remember a time when Maltese society was, in fact, very homogenous. Things have changed since then (on campus this morning, for example, I noticed several female students wearing headscarves)... but have the recent demographic changes had any effect on perceptions of Muslims among younger generations? The fact that MPM has a 'youth branch' is, I think, indicative: it shows that the attitude is some- thing that is still with us. I feel that there is sometimes a distinction between students at university, and others who may have left school earlier and are already in the em- ployment sector. I have worked, and I am a student too, so I have experienced both situations. At university, I feel quite safe: no one has ever come up to me and been openly discriminatory on campus. I do get comments all the time, but they tend to be jokes. One student recently told me: 'Ara ma tispludi- niex, ta!' ('Don't go blowing your- self up on me now...!') [laughs] OK, it's a joke; even I find that funny. But I still feel it's as though there's a trademark being made: undoubt- edly, someone who is Muslim falls first under the category of 'terror- ist', 'extremist', 'closed-minded', 'a person who doesn't believe in democratic values', etc. Then, if you show that you are willing to mingle, to socialise, to have a chat, to accept different ideas, etc... you are put out of that category. But it has to come from you. The as- sumption is made, and it's up to you to prove otherwise... national identity PHOTO BY JAMES BIANCHI