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Nadia Kiwan: Decolonial approaches to la茂肠颈迟茅 as a mode to re-think contemporary Islamophobia

This paper argues that in order to better understand how political Islamophobia functions in contemporary French society, we need to examine how Islam is simultaneously constructed as a 鈥榩roblem鈥� for la茂肠颈迟茅 as well as being its beneficiary. This contradictory configuration whereby Islam and by extension, French Muslims are seen to be outside the regime of political secularism embodied by la茂肠颈迟茅 as well as being enabled by that same regime is premised on two dominant understandings of la茂肠颈迟茅. The first dominant conception of la茂肠颈迟茅 argues that it is based on the strict separation of public and private sphere and that religious identity does not or should not have a political sense; that religious faith is a private or individual matter (Roy 2005). A second dominant conception of la茂肠颈迟茅 argues that French political secularism, as embodied in the 1905 law of separation between the Church and State protects freedom of conscience, just as much as it circumscribes it. However, in both these approaches to la茂肠颈迟茅, there is an unspoken assumption that there is some sort of anterior 鈥榩ure鈥� 濒补茂肠 ideal, which simply needs to be recovered and reinforced or in the case of the second, 鈥�la茂肠颈迟茅 蹿补濒蝉颈蹿颈茅别鈥� narrative (Baub茅rot 2014), needs to be 鈥榢nocked back into shape鈥�. In both cases, the emblematic date of 1905 and the various articles of the separation law are seen to present the template for rehabilitating la茂肠颈迟茅. However, this paper argues that a decolonial approach to la茂肠颈迟茅 is necessary to uncover how Islamophobia is enabled by discourses invoking the need to uphold a political principle which emerged at the height of French imperialism. A decolonial approach to the concept of secularism would fundamentally deconstruct the idea that la茂肠颈迟茅 is a stable, equality-bearing framework on the one hand and that religious minorities are the 鈥減roblem鈥� on the other.

Nadia Kiwan is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Aberdeen, UK. Her research interests focus on public discourses about postcolonial migration, secularism and Islam as well as decolonial and intersectional social movements. She is author of Secularism, Islam and public intellectuals in contemporary France (Manchester University Press 2019).

Jim Wolfreys: The Macron presidency and the sanctification of Islamophobia

Emmanuel Macron鈥檚 victory over Marine Le Pen in the 2017 presidential election was heralded as a triumph of progressive European liberalism over the forces of reactionary nationalism. Macron located himself at the centre of 鈥榓 new global humanist project鈥� and spoke out against drawing up more laws to 鈥榟unt down鈥� those who wore the hijab. Government ministers later denounced the 鈥榲eil鈥� as something undesirable in society, attacked supermarkets for fostering 鈥榗ommunitarianism鈥� by dedicating shelves to halal or kosher food, and condemned universities as hotbeds of 鈥業slamo-leftism鈥� and 鈥榠ntersectionality鈥� contributing to the fragmentation of society and boosting Islamist terror. This paper attempts to explain this trajectory by assessing claims that Macronism is a response to the inability of a neoliberal economic platform to secure a stable electoral base within the confines of the left-right divide in France (Amable and Palombarini), that his presidency is emblematic of the era of 鈥榩ost-ideological neo-liberalism鈥�, and that its Islamophobia is therefore a function of political expediency rather than any ideological evolution (Traverso). To do so it locates the Islamophobic turn of the Macron presidency within the context of the reactionary radicalisation of mainstream French politics, persistent and widespread resistance to any serious reckoning with France鈥檚 history of slavery and colonialism, and the role of Republican universalism in hampering efforts to develop an effective anti-racist response to Islamophobia.

Jim Wolfreys is Reader in French and European Politics at King鈥檚 College London. His publications include Republic of Islamophobia: The Rise of Respectable Racism in France (Hurst 2018) and The Politics of Racism in France, co-authored with Peter Fysh (Palgrave, 2003).