Muslim societies may pay the price
The targeting of the "Islamist left" in France heralds unintended consequences
The French minister sparked widespread controversy with her recent statements.
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Intellectuals and academics denounced the minister's statements.
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There is a new ghost haunting Europe, at least upon seeing the scene in Paris, and in recent days the French government, under President Emmanuel Macron, has escalated its political and rhetorical attack against what is known as the "Islamist left", and this concept, which spread for the first time among the French extreme right, Openly bringing together Islamist extremists, intellectuals, and left-leaning activists, this supposed problem is now being raised by figures at the heart of the French political establishment, including some Macron ministers.
Last year, the president waged a war against "Islamic separatism" in France, after a horrific attack on a French teacher.
Last week, the French House of Representatives passed a bill against "Islamists", legislation aimed at confronting the ideology associated with a recent series of terrorist attacks, but critics fear that it could target entire Muslim communities in the country, and for Macron, who appears to be actively moving ahead of the elections. Presidential, next year, the challenge is broader.
In a speech he gave last October, he said that the alienation felt by some French citizens of Arab or African origin was partly a result of many seeing their identity through post-colonial or anti-colonial discourse, referring to academic, social and cultural theories, which he says They were imported into France from the United States, and these theories, as the French president and some of his political allies argue, provided visions of an "identity" for society that are alien and destructive to France's secular society.
More controversy
Last week, the French Minister of Higher Education, Frederick Vidal, sparked more controversy, after she announced an investigation into the issue of the "Islamist left" that permeates French universities.
"I think that the Islamist left is eating away at our society as a whole, and universities are not immune, and they are part of our society," Vidal said on "C News", a television channel popular with the right, pointing the finger of blame at an elite of left-wing intellectuals. Everything is through a will to divide, divide and define the enemy. ”Reactions to these statements were harsh in France. On Saturday, about 600 university professors called for Fidel’s resignation due to“ defaming ”intellectuals and engaging in a discourse more familiar in countries where democracy is in retreat.
Stay away from controversy
Macron’s office sought to distance itself from the controversy. In the middle of the week, his spokesman insisted on “the absolute president’s commitment to the independence of academic researchers,” but Macron is still a major participant in a much larger struggle.
It is about a culture war, which is reverberating in other parts of the world as well.
Illiberal national governments, from Hungary to India to Turkey, have targeted some academic institutions, and in some cases imposed censorship regimes.
In the United States, the political right has spent years complaining about the cultured left, and anger at the "Islamist left" may be an explicit French concern, but it can actually be heard implicitly in American discussions, with fear of open borders for refugees and cultural restrictions on universities.
Some critics compared the charge of "Islamist leftism" to "Bolshevik Judaism", nearly a century ago.
This anti-Semitic slander portrays the Jewish communities in Europe as a dangerous and destructive fifth column, and foreshadows a future outrageous genocide, and the current term, at best, highlights that the French state finds it “difficult to think of itself as a state in a multicultural society,” as well. Sarah Mazouz, a sociologist at the National Research Center, said that the invocation of the "Islamist left" was aimed at "delegitimizing" new thinking about race, gender, and other issues, "so that no debate could take place."
French scholars criticized the term's appalling effect, as well as the wrong characterization of fields of academic research, and this was already evident in Fidel's somewhat confused speech, as the minister linked the presence of the Confederate flag in the hands of Trump's supporters to the US Congress building, with the spread of left-wing cultural studies in universities. American.
Audrey Celestine, professor of political sociology and American studies at the French University of Lille, said: “We are dealing with a form of McCarthyism (a behavior that accuses conspiracy and treason without evidence).” Follow-up: “I support discussion, but with people. Who have already read the books they are talking about ».
False idea
A statement issued by an organization representing the presidents of French universities declared that "Islamist leftism is not a correct concept, but it is a false idea that some try in vain to present with a scientific description." A broader scope to the far right that spread it. ”Even the French National Center for Scientific Research, the public institution that Fidel commissioned to conduct the investigation, issued a statement condemning any“ attempts to delegitimize various fields of research, such as post-colonial studies, cross-studies and research on race. ” .
An editorial in "Le Monde" newspaper described the use of the term "Islamist left" as "dangerous." The newspaper criticized the Minister of Higher Education for trying to distract attention at a time of a public health crisis, and Vidal might try to "make people forget her silence about the terrible health crisis." Which shakes universities and forces students to queue in front of food stores, ”the French daily asked, about“ the minister's ability to assume her responsibilities in facing the main issue at the present time. ”
• 600 university professors called for the resignation of the Minister of Higher Education due to "defamation".
• A statement issued by an organization representing the presidents of French universities declared that Islamist leftism is not a correct concept, but it is a false idea that some try in vain to present in a scientific description.
Ishan Tharoor - Columnist
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