France and “Islamic separatism”: the sword of serene hatred

The crime of beheading a French teacher, who had shown his students cartoons of the Prophet, sparked a fierce anti-Muslim media campaign. It is a parallel campaign to the use of this crime, which coincides with the beginning of the extraordinary judicial sessions of the attack against the magazine “Charlie Hebdo”, and with the war of Emmanuel Macron against “Islamic separatism”, to undermine the tendency anti-racist policy and holding it responsible for the spread of extremism.

Dan Macron, in a short speech he made during his visit to the school where the murdered teacher worked, called what he called “a described Islamic terrorist operation. It is no coincidence that this terrorist has targeted a teacher, because through him he is targeting the Republic, its values ​​and enlightenment. The head of state called on all French people to “unify the ranks, because what unites us first are common values ​​and history: this unity is fundamental.” This call for unity, “in the face of brutality and obscurantism”, was captured by all components of the French political spectrum, from the left to the extreme right, with a growing demand for stronger measures against “Islamic terrorism.” In a related context, the reporter of the Secularism Observatory, Nicola Caden, who defends “silent secularism”, learned, through the media, of the decision to replace one of the supporters of the coercive secularism prevailing in recent years . However, the most dangerous development, which indicates the official trend to demonize and criminalize anti-Islamophobia in France, is the correction of anti-racism and independent associations such as the Council of Resistance to Islamophobia in France. This association, which is waging a legal battle against “Islamophobia”, was raided in the “Baraka City” center, another association that works in the charitable field and that provides aid to those in need. The Interior Minister, Geral Darmana, who is currently calling for the dissolution of these companies, admitted that the raid on their headquarters “has nothing to do with the murder of the teacher, but rather with our desire to send a message to whoever matters.” According to the minister, the targeted associations “promote separatism and the fact that Islam is more important than the values ​​of the republic.”
When Macron considers that the teacher’s assassin “wanted to overthrow the values ​​of the republic”, and his interior minister affirms that anti-Islamophobia fighters are promoting “a break with the values ​​of the republic,” the link between the fighter is established. anti-racist and jihadist. This speech, popular among French political officials, which assumes the existence of organic relations between anti-racist political movements and jihadist groups, recalls the theses of some specialists in Islamic affairs in France. The most prominent of them is Gil Kebel, who condemned in his book “Jihad in Our Country”. The emergence of a French jihad ”, published in 2015, which he sees as the collusion of the workers of anti-racist organizations with the recruitment of young people by the jihadists. Without going so far as to accuse opponents of anti-racism of being mere fronts of the jihadists, he affirms that the positive resonance of Islamic propaganda among young people is due to the introductory role that the discourse of anti-racist associations plays among them, which reinforces his conviction. of victims.

Responsibility for the infiltration of the jihadist movement in the French suburbs of the anti-racist militants

Such a proposal leads to see Islamophobia as a mere illusion and to blame anti-racist militants for the penetration of the jihadist movement in the French suburbs, ignoring the power of the French state and society in producing the conditions for this penetration. Of course, it is also blind to the fact that anti-racist associations, by approaching Islamophobia from a political perspective, have contributed to refuting simplistic and extremist theses that arise out of desperation. The incitement against anti-racist associations has not stopped, and within this framework is the report prepared in 2018 by Karim Karoui, one of Macron’s most prominent advisers involved in the drafting of his law on “Islamic separatism”, entitled “The Islamism Industry”. In his report, Karoui calls for addressing political Islam with all his parties as a bloc of the deaf, and strengthening the legal arsenal in France to address it more effectively, recommendations that Macron and his team have heard.

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