TEHRAN TIMES -- Mahmood Manshipouri, associate professor of International Relations, writes an opinion piece condemning the terrorist attacks in Paris while also exploring the event’s “tremendous negative impacts” in Muslim communities in France and beyond.
“Secular France has always had a complicated relationship with its Muslim community, which are amongst the largest Muslim minorities in any European countries, but now it has nudged toward manifest distrust and open enmity. Far right movements and the anti-immigrant National Front Party are likely to exploit this situation to close the country’s border. This is likely to further stigmatize Muslims and aggravate the already state of Islamophobia throughout the Europe, despite the courageous and dignified call by French President François Hollande for still agreeing to accept Syrian refugees and refraining from the detaining of Muslims. ...
“As callous as their perverted young minds are, attacking Muslim minorities and discriminating against them is unlikely to provide long-term solace — much less a solution.”
Monshipouri teaches Middle Eastern politics at San Francisco State University and University of California, Berkeley.