France’s Demonization of Muslims Is Getting Worse
On Friday, an Islamist extremist murdered a schoolteacher in a suburb northwest of Paris. In response, the French interior minister has called for a ban on an anti-Islamophobia legal association wholly unconnected to the atrocity. We need to resist this turn against democracy and justice.
French president Emmanuel Macron at a joint press conference on June 29, 2020 in Gransee, Germany. (Kay Nietfeld – Pool / Getty Images)
On Friday, October 16, France was shocked by the appalling murder of middle-school teacher Samuel Paty, decapitated by a young Chechen Islamic fundamentalist. The author of this sordid act had already, several months previously, posted on social media about his intention to turn to violent action; the teacher whom he killed had recently been at the center of a controversy when one of his pupils’ parents made an online accusation of Islamophobic behavior. This followed a class in which Mr Paty had shown cartoons mocking the Islamic prophet Mohammed as part of a lesson on “freedom of expression” — though he had sought to avoid upsetting his Muslim students’ sensibilities. According to some of his former students, the well-liked teacher apologized to pupils who may have been offended. Yet the controversy took on a life of its own on the internet; the murderer himself had no direct relationship with those involved, living some 100 kilometers away and choosing his target by following discussions on social media.
Mr Paty’s death sparked an outpouring of emotion, especially among public schoolteachers. But there was also an immediate rush to mobilize the killing politically, as the government and various right-wing and far-right forces sought to draw its Islamophobic and anti-democratic “lessons.” The interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, announced a proposal for the government to break up various associations, including the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), the main body in France offering legal support to victims of Islamophobia. Frequently attacked by various Islamophobic figures, the CCIF was targeted by Darmanin because the parent who had earlier criticized Mr Paty had sought this association’s help. But the CCIF had said nothing on this subject — and this highly legally focused organization simply had nothing to do with the online harassment campaign. But this appalling murder — or, more particularly, the political bid to exploit it — also make up part of a wider story about how terrorist outrages are used to attack Muslims in general.
Fighting “Separatism”?
Indeed, already on October 1, president Emmanuel Macron had announced an “anti-separatism” bill targeting France’s Muslims. A few days later, he changed his wording slightly, saying that the legislation was in fact aimed at “strengthening secularism and republican principles.” But the accusation of Muslim “separatism” had already firmly established itself in public debate.
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