The Social Bond Has Broken

Rachid Taha is a prominent speaker for young immigrants in France. In the interview with Björn Döring he talks about his album "Tékitoi" and about the frustrations of Arabic youths, the war in Iraq, and crisis in the Arabic world

photo: Universal Music — Cover Rachid Taha, "Tekitoi"

Mr Taha, your new album "Tékitoi" sounds like rock, it is very angry. Why?

Rachid Taha: I wanted to banish my nightmares. Not a single day goes by without a murder taking place. Not a day goes by without the Arabic culture being brought into connection with one news story or another about terror, in the radio or on television. These representations are often exaggerated to the point of becoming caricatures.

With this album I was aiming to create a weapon of mass destruction that destroys prejudices. This is about people who are no different from us, we who live in Western Europe. This album is an attempt to fight the schizophrenia the Occident has in relation to the Arabic world.

Pete Townshend once said that The Who need a heavy weapon, namely loud noise, to yank the audience out of its lethargy. That’s what it’s about. I share this opinion, and I am a big fan of The Who.

This will shows up in your texts: they are unembellished and direct.

Taha: I used to speak in metaphors to express my thoughts. On the new album I prefer to speak about things in a more direct way. I criticize the way the Americans are going about the war in Iraq. I criticize the fact that there are dictatorships in so many Arabic countries. I criticize the misuse of the idea of democracy.

And I am critical of the governments of many Arabic states because they are partly responsible for what is happening at the moment. What I want is to reveal the lies—the lies on both sides.

How does the audience react when you play in Arabic countries?

Taha: I rarely play in Arabic countries.

Why? Aren’t you allowed to play there?

Taha: In many countries I can’t play because my lyrics are often too brutal, too merciless toward the myths of the Arabic world. I would like to play in Arabic countries more often, but it is hard for me. In many countries the voice and the law of hypocrites rule, they don’t have freedom of speech in the Western sense. The Arabic countries only know a culture in which one party rules. This is one reason why the frustration of the population is bubbling over.

The US is waging war in Iraq with the argument that they will bring democracy to Iraq. What do you think about this?

Taha: What the Americans are bringing to Iraq is a model that is diametrically opposed to democracy. With the result that especially the young people will end up always rejecting democracy because they are certain they don’t want whatever is brought into the country with bombs and terror. The US’s war is creating a new generation that has learned first and foremost hatred. At the moment they are killing democracy.

Can you feel this among young Arabs in France, too?

Taha: There is definitely a tendency among young people to cut themselves off from society. This is because, among other things, Arabic immigrants and their children who were born in France were almost completely ignored for a long time—they were not integrated into the working world, and their music and culture were not exactly welcomed with open arms.

They were not given decent apartments, they couldn’t get into discos. As a reaction to this exclusion, the people became frustrated, then they were radicalized—or at least they became more susceptible to the seduction of radical forces.

This can also be seen in the debates sparked by the question of Turkey’s possible entry into the EU. These debates would not have been so heated if Turkey were not an Islamic country.

But this rejection by the West also creates animosity on the other side, a feeling of racism.

Can you intervene in these developments as an artist?

Taha: I try to. I try to make it clear that it is above all the politicians who have the responsibility here because they are playing a bad game, one that is influenced by hatred and demagogy. I always say again and again that we have to respond with reason. I would like to show that you don’t get anywhere if you subscribe to one or the other form of radicalism.

You were once considered a speaker for the children of immigrants, the generation that has grown up in France. Do you have the feeling that you can still reach the younger generations?

Taha: No, I can’t anymore. The grass has been cut from right under our feet. The base has been destroyed with whom we could have had a dialog. You have to say that for a long time the politics were all wrong. In particular the Socialist Party in France made big mistakes in their interaction with immigrants, mistakes that contributed to the fact that the social bond has been broken.

This development has brought about some very reactionary politics. Even an initiative such as S.O.S. Racisme was ultimately only a cover-up for failed attempts at integration. An organization like S.O.S. Racisme was none other than an invention of the Socialist Party intended to win them the votes of Arabic immigrants. The proof of this is very simple: Everyone who used to work for S.O.S. Racisme now has a party position and mandates for the Socialist Party in France. That was the chicken run of the socialists.

Interview: Björn Döring

This article was previously published in Germany's daily Die Tageszeitung.

Translated from the German by Christina M. White

Website Rachid Taha (in English and French)