Recent events in France have emphasised the fraught relationship between the country and Islam. Ignited by a month of terror attacks, a debate concerning free-speech has developed compelling President Emmanuel Macron to justify one of the country’s founding principles - laïcité. Prior to these attacks, Macron made a speech on October 2nd calling Islam a religion “in crisis”, which was criticised across the world. Since then, he has persistently repeated assurances to protect freedom of expression in France in response to allegations that the government is anti-Muslim following the unveiling of proposed laws that aim to tackle Islamist separatism. As the debate around Islam becomes increasingly hyper-politicised, what does this mean for French Muslims?
THE LIBERTY TO BELIEVE OR NOT TO BELIEVE
On October 16th, teacher Samuel Paty was killed and beheaded by an Islamist terrorist in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Saine-Honorine. The perpetrator was of Chechen ethnicity, and murdered Paty after learning that he had shown his students cartoons printed by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo of the Prophet Muhammad in a class of freedom of expression. Soon after, on October 29th, three were murdered in Nice by another Islamist terrorist who appeared to have a similar motivation. Protests occurred in response to these attacks in support of free-speech and secularism. Macron has since championed French secularism, saying that he will support the right to publish caricatures - regardless of how offensive they seem. Islam has a strong practice of aniconism, and it is therefore blasphemous to portray the Prophet Muhammad in a visual manner.
Macron’s support of free-speech is not a principle isolated to him. It radiates across contemporary France, and is deeply embedded in France’s political, social, and historical discourse. The country has a law which explicitly protects blasphemy; the same law which protects the publication of the controversial Charlie Hebdo caricatures. Laïcité is France’s principle of secularism. It aims to encourage a post-religious society, completely dissipating religion from all public affairs of the state. The concept began during the French Revolution, when dechristianisation of France occurred and the monarchy was subsequently abolished. This was then codified in the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State. Essentially, this means that citizens and public institutions cannot be influenced by organised religion; the collective political community of the state takes priority over individual communities - and this is the only thing that can maintain true freedom and equality. Therefore, in France, you are able to legally mock any sacred belief, but it is not legal to incite hatred towards an individual on the basis of that religion. However, it transpires that France’s secularism has only inflamed religious and racial tensions, and that potentially by advocating freedom from religion, freedom of religion has been diminished.
PROPOSED AGENDA
Following the attacks, French authorities projected the Charlie Hebdo cartoons onto government buildings “in defiance of Islamist terrorists”. Authorities also suppressed radical Islam activity; groups and individuals suspected of Islamic fundamentalism were raided, and a mosque in Pantin has been forced to close for six months based on the actions of one individual.
Macron also announced an anti-radicalisation plan which aims to target Islamist separatism. One bill restricts the filming of police, a measure which could potentially hide police brutality. A second bill, which is still being considered, seeks to restrict Islamism as the French government has defined it. This includes measures such as banning home-schooling, giving children an identification number to monitor school attendance, and test organisations which receive government subsidies for their allegiance to the “values of the republic”. Macron has also asked that the country’s Muslim leaders accept the charter of “republican values”. These government policies are repressive, and unsurprisingly, have raised questions across France, Europe, and Muslim countries. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called for a boycott of French products in Turkey, and has emphasised that insulting beliefs should not constitute freedom. France has been heavily criticised in Iran, Jordan and Kuwait, and in Bangladesh, an effigy of Macron was burned.
Macron has asserted that France welcomes Muslims who want to practice Islam peacefully, and has rejected assertions that he and his government are Islamophobic, accusing the media of misrepresenting France’s relationship with Islam - “I will not allow anybody to claim that France, or its government, is fostering racism against Muslims”.
SOCIAL INEQUALITY AND SEPARATISM
Though President Macron maintains that his government is not Islamophobic, there are fears that he is doing very little to find a resolution to the “crisis”, and is instead aggravating it. Since 9/11, Western states have adopted policies which target Islamic practices, claiming that they’re targeting Islamic fundamentalist groups. For example, in 2011, France became the first country in Europe to make wearing a full-face Islamic veil illegal, with officials suggesting that they were guaranteeing the equal treatment of women and that the veil is oppressive. It is also important to consider France’s historical relationship with Muslim populations during the colonial era. Until Algeria’s independence in 1962, French citizenship was refused to local Arab and Berber natives unless they renounced Islam. More recently, Macron announced that France could stop teaching some foreign language classes, including Arabic and Turkish. The French government also wants to create certificate programs for French-trained imams. Imams are religious leaders in Islam, and Macron has asked the French Muslim Council (the CFCM) to aid in improving the training of imams in France - “mosques financed with transparency with imams trained in France and respectful of the Republican values and principles, that’s how we will create the conditions so that Muslims in France can practice freely their religion”.
Macron has acknowledged that France has failed its immigrant communities, creating their “own separatism” in banlieues of “misery and hardship”. The word banlieue has become synonymous with the image of unsettled working-class areas which surround Paris and other large cities in France. A large percentage of the residents of these communities are of foreign origin, mainly from former French African colonies. These areas are often demonised and are viewed as areas which “breed radical Islam”. After the Charlie Hebdo attacks in 2015, Fox News labelled them “no-go zones”.
Although he has acknowledged the failure of France, Macron’s rhetoric and his proposed policies have the potential to increase polarisation and deepen secularisation in the country. French Muslims already deal with unemployment, systemic racism and social immobility, and now, may have to contest with additional measures due to the religion they follow. France’s persistent pursuit of laïcité and the actions of the French government risk further alienation of French Muslims, and may lead those individuals to question their identity and place in the nation.
Emma has a Master's degree in International Relations (Terrorism and Political Violence) from the University of Birmingham. She has a specific interest in the international order, specifically geopolitics and the importance of multilateralism to rising global challenges such as refugee crises and international human rights. She is pursuing a career in international relations and research.