The problem is not French secularism, it is Islamophobia!
In October of last year, the French Senate approved a bill banning parents of Muslim students from wearing headscarves during school trips. The bill came on the agenda of the Senate after a French far-right official shouted at a Muslim volunteer parent with a veil to take off her scarf during a school trip to a regional council in Dijon in eastern France. The ruling En Marche, which has the majority in the National Assembly, is opposed to the bill, so it is unlikely to be passed at the assembly.
However, anti-Muslim laws and policies became the norm in France in recent years. French Parliament banned wearing of headscarves at schools in 2004 and wearing of the full-face veil (the burqa) on the streets in 2011. In Summer 2016, some French cities banned wearing of full-body swimwear (burkini) on the public beaches. The recent attempt to ban wearing headscarves by the parents volunteering for school trips follows this trajectory.
Many scholars and pundits point to French secular legacies to explain the discriminatory policies toward Muslims. However, in my recent book, Alien Citizens: The State and Religious Minorities in Turkey and France, I argue instead that it is the rise of Islamophobia that has enabled discriminatory policies toward Muslims in France.
French Secularism is Not the Problem
Although the French state has a more restrictive approach toward religions compared to its European counterparts, it never banned the students’ wearing of religious symbols in classrooms until the 2000s. The Council of the State, the highest administrative court in France, had upheld the right of girls to wear a headscarf in school until 2003, provided there had not been any disruption of the public order.
It is not French secularism but the global rise of Islamophobia that led to the discriminatory policies toward French Muslims.
Islamophobia: The Game Changer
The September 11 terrorist attacks led to the rise of anti-Muslim attitudes globally. The events that followed the Arab uprisings in the 2010s unleashed the spread of Muslim extremist groups in the Middle East and Europe, and contributed to the rise of Islamophobia.
The rise of Islamophobia and the increasing appeal of the far-right, as a result, changed the terms of the political game in France. The uphill trajectory of far-right parties makes inclusive policies more difficult. Mainstream political parties are concerned about losing their social base to the far-right alternatives.
Anti-Muslim groups utilized the new environment to expand their support base for more restrictive policies toward Muslims.
There are at least three mechanisms of how Islamophobia led restrictive policies toward Muslims in France.
The New Perception: Islam vs the Republic
First, Islamophobia helped the anti-Muslim actors portray Muslim religious symbols as representatives of “Islamic fundamentalism” that rejects French secularism, one of the essential pillars of the republic. The clothing restrictions, then, would be a remedy to the rise of “Islamic fundamentalism.”
This point was ubiquitous in public debates and legislative sessions. Then prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin asked the legislators in March 2004 to support the headscarf ban in the name of republicanism. He said, “I solemnly ask you, whatever your political choices, gather around the bill, which symbolizes our confidence in the Republic and our national will to live together.”
Mainstreaming anti-Muslim Attitudes
Second, the increased concerns about the rise of Islamism facilitated the access of the anti-Muslim actors to the policymakers.
The French parliament awarded Caroline Fourest, a leading activist for banning the headscarf at public schools, with the National Award of “Laïcité” in 2005. Fadela Amera, who had been very active in anti-headscarf demonstrations, served in the French government between 2007 and 2010.
The marginalization of the liberals
Third, the rise of Islamophobia marginalized liberal voices who tried to reconcile the ideas of strict secularists and Muslims. The opponents could not establish connections to the policymakers. Politicians refrained from being affiliated with Muslims to avoid stigmatization within an increasingly polarized public.
For example, when journalist Alain Gresh organized a workshop series on Islam and secularism and invited Muslim representatives in 2003, he was blamed by anti-Muslim activists as “serving mainly as a Trojan horse to Islamists.”
The anti-Muslim coalition is expanding in France
By capitalizing on Islamophobia, anti-Muslim actors built a broad coalition to ban Muslim religious symbols in public. Former supporters of Muslims gradually joined this coalition.
For example, in November 1989, a group of intellectuals, including famous sociologist Alain Touraine and a leading anti-racism activist Harlem Désir, described those who supported the expulsion of girls with headscarves from the school as “secular fanatics” and suggested that it was impossible to integrate Muslims into the French society without tolerating their differences. However, both Touraine and Désir, along with many other signatories, supported the headscarf ban later.
Islamophobia continues to structure French politics. This is why we should be prepared to read many stories of discrimination about Muslims in France.
An earlier version of this piece was published in Berkley Forum on November 25, 2019.
