Macron’s words demonstrate the deep-rooted Islamophobia in France
By: Callum Sutherland
Tags: Islamophobia, Macron, Discrimination, Colonialism, France

Millions of Muslims call France home, and consider themselves to be French. 6.3% of the country identify as Muslim, many of whom can trace their roots back to former French colonies such as Algeria, Morocco, and Lebanon. With such a significant proportion of the population being Muslim, it would understandably cause widespread offence if a French newspaper were to publish cartoons of Prophet Muhammad; a scenario which occurred in January 2015. The magazine Charlie Hebdo published such a cartoon, and in response terrorists murdered 12 people, 9 of whom were journalists for Charlie Hebdo. There is no excuse for this kind of attack, and France along with the rest of the world was left in mourning and in shock. Moreover, you would think French media would be highly discouraged to publish such cartoons again. This unfortunately is not the case.

It needs to be understood that depicting the prophet in any kind of imagery is highly offensive to Muslims, hence the attack which was carried out in 2015 by radical Islamist terrorists. As the global Muslim community condemned these attackers, they were still left outraged and offended by the magazine’s publishing, and they were left feeling the same when on 1st of September this year, Charlie Hebdo published more cartoons of Prophet Muhammad. Subsequently, a French schoolteacher showed these cartoons to his class, and was beheaded by a lone attacker on 16th October. This obviously begs the question as to why Charlie Hebdo, amongst other European magazines, would continue to publish these cartoons. Not only do they cause offence to billions of people, but they result in horrific attacks against those who publish or endorse the cartoons. The motive to continue these publications is baffling, yet it becomes slightly more comprehensible to understand when put into the context of the rife Islamophobia embedded within French society and its government.

French President Emmanuel Macron described Islam as a religion “in crisis” during a national address on 2nd October 2020. Image Source: Hindustan Times

This event, along with French president Emmanuel Macron stating that Islam was “in crisis” across the globe, has sparked widespread protests amongst Muslim communities in Europe, as well as mass protests in numerous Muslim countries. This was further fuelled as Macron called Samuel Paty, the teacher killed earlier this month, “a hero” for instilling the democratic values and freedom of speech into his pupils, instead of addressing the offensiveness involved in such an action. The French president distastefully added “We will not give up cartoons”, an indirect insult to the global Muslim community as he showed his support for the extremely distasteful cartoons against Islam. This series of events has demonstrated the French government’s lack of empathy for Muslims and understanding of their culture, sparking a conversation about French Islamophobia as a whole.

Protests were held throughout Western Europe and the Muslim world in October in response to Emmanuel Macron’s national address. Image Source: Al Jazeera

In order to understand the origins of Islamophobia in France you have to go back to French colonial rule in North Africa. Paul Silverstein presents this background in his article ‘The context of antisemitism and Islamophobia in France’. Silverstein highlights that the French colonisation of North Africa and its Muslim populations was portrayed as a ‘civilizing mission’, and native populations possessed a culture too dissimilar to French culture. Because of this, Muslims in French colonies would be denied the right to citizenship until 1958, as well as being subject to different court systems and legal codes under ‘Code de l’indigenat’. In fact, most native people in North African colonies would have to renounce their religious beliefs in order to gain citizenship, something which was understandably widely rejected and not followed through with by many. This practice of renouncing religious status in order to gain citizenship is something you would expect from the medieval era, but the fear of Muslim revolt in Algeria and other colonies resulted in the French implementing this policy until the mid-20th century. This distorted policy of citizenship fed the roots of Islamophobia in France, which continued throughout the 20th century against North African migrants in France.

French soldiers had a significant presence in North African colonies such as Algeria, which France occupied from 1830–1962. Native North Africans became second class citizens under occupation, mainly due to the French perception that natives possessed an inferior and less civilized culture. Image Source: Middle East Eye

Islamophobia and racism in general against France’s minority populations continued throughout the second half of the 20th century and has led us to the current situation today, where Muslim women cannot wear a headscarf in school, the French president refuses to condemn anti-Muslim cartoons, and hate crimes are often committed against Arabs and Muslims. This pattern of discrimination was again plain to see during the 1980’s and 1990’s as numerous neighbourhoods across France, known as banlieues, held protests and riots in response to police brutality against its residents. The residents of these banlieues consist mostly of non-white, non-Christian and immigrant citizens. Banlieues were usually not interpreted negatively by the general public, French media, and the government, but this changed during the last 20 years of the 20th century. During this period there developed a “strong stigmatisation of banlieues with reference to the formation of ghettos, ethnic separatism, and Islamic fundamentalism” as stated by Mustafa Dikec, in his article ‘Badlands of the Republic? Revolts, the French State, and the Question of Banlieues’. These neighbourhoods started to become associated with ‘the problem of immigration’, as exaggerated negative stories of the integration of foreigners, and Muslims in particular, into French society became tied to the word ‘banlieues’. The riots that broke out in these areas of French cities therefore started to become tied to the demographics of the people living there, despite the motive behind these riots being an entirely different matter. Dikec describes the banlieues as areas with “deteriorating housing, lack of facilities, education problems, insufficient transportation, and a strong territorial stigmatisation, the negative effects of which are strongly felt on a daily basis by their inhabitants” and these were the issues for which riots started in 2005. Yet the narrative for such riots was centred around the ethnicity and religion of the majority of the rioters. French media showed mostly images of rioters with darker complexion, portraying the riots as ethnic and religiously motivated, creating a negative view of immigrants, non-whites and Muslims for the French public to pick up on and manifest upon. In 2018, French citizens took to the streets in what was known as the Yellow Vest Movement, with the majority of the protesters being white. The protests were motivated by increasing fuel prices, higher costs of living and general economic justice, and this was how the protests and riots were remembered, not by the ethnicity of the participants. However, when the 2005 riots involved members of minority ethnic and religious communities, the media and general public paid significantly more attention to the demographics of the rioters, not the economic and social justice they seeked through the movement.

The Yellow Vest Movement sparked widespread riots and protests in 2018 over mainly economic concerns. Image Source: NBC

Returning to France in 2020, where 22% of the population has an unfavourable view of Islam, there is now more of an understanding as to why the French president, the wider government, and the French public show a lack of motivation to condemn offensive cartoons which result in the shocking deaths of those who promote such cartoons. You can understand more as to why Charlie Hebdo continued to publish images of the Prophet Muhammed, even after such actions resulted in the death of 12 French citizens. It is more understandable as to why President Macron supported the use of these images in the name of freedom of speech instead of realising the offense caused to millions of French Muslims whom he serves. All of these aspects are more understandable because since the start of France’s relationship with its predominantly Muslim colonies and citizens, these Muslims have been heavily discriminated against, portrayed as violent rioters who live in run down areas and who are under pressure to change their culture in order to fit in with the rest of the French public. This discrimination has been carried out at both a governmental and societal level, from the foundation of North African colonies in the 19th century, to the terrorist attacks in October 2020, and it continues to disenfranchise over 6% of the French population. Extremely worryingly, it seems that Islamophobia in France is not going anywhere anytime soon.