Decoloniality and Politics of Recognition among the Indigènes de la République (original) (raw)
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Introduction With the largest Muslim population in Western Europe, France has faced a number of critiques in its attempts to assimilate Muslims into an ostensibly secular (but predominantly Catholic) state and society. This book challenges traditional analyses that emphasise the conflict between Muslims and the French state and broader French society, by exploring the intersection of Muslim faith with other identities, as well as the central roles of Muslims in French civil society, politics and the media. The tensions created by attacks on French soil by Islamic State have contributed to growing acceptance of the Islamophobic discourse of Marine Le Pen and her far-right Front National party, and debates about issues such as headscarves and burkinis have garnered worldwide attention. Downing addresses these issues from a new angle, eschewing the traditional us-and-them narrative and offering a more nuanced account based on people’s actual lived experiences. French Muslims in Perspective will be of interest to students and scholars across sociology, politics, international relations, cultural studies, European Studies and French studies, as well as policy makers and practitioners involved in immigration, education, and media.
The Return of the Native: Postcolonial Smoke Screen and the French Postcolonial Politics of Identity
Although many scholars have attempted to avoid lapidary formulations, much of the postcolonial conversation that takes place in France is a reconfigured formulation of old questions, with a taste of déjà vu. Even before having fully landed on French soil, the term postcolonial is anathema to France: it is associated with a diminished space of discussion, and the debate over its usage has nationalistic undertones. To paraphrase a famous title, the conversation boils down to the following question: is postcolonial studies bad for France? It recalls the " for or against veil " formulation that discredited all domestic opponents of the 2004 law on laïcité as " pro-veil. " The law made France world famous, one more time, for its singularity of clinging to universalism despite the fact that, evaluated in its context, the law was not free of the charge of being part of a gesture toward multiculturalism. A perusal of the three articles written by Jean-François Bayart, Achille Mbembe, and Ann Laura Stoler reveals that the question we are invited to discuss has less to do with the impact of postcolonial studies in French scholarship than with the reason why such scholarship that has gained high visibility in the English-speaking academic world has long remained marginal or ignored in French academia.
"Minorities in France" endeavors to understand the development of the peculiar, intense, and historically conflictual relationship that exists between the French state and ethnic, racial or religious minorities. This course will also explore how history, memory and representation have been mutually entangled and politically contested from post-World War II to the present day. Historical episodes include the aftermath of the Holocaust, struggles around decolonization in Africa, Asia, and Maghreb, the growing politicization of minorities in the wake of May 1968, as well as the rise and demise of multiculturalism over the last two decades of the XXth century. Using oral testimonies, novels, films, and photographs, a specific emphasis will be placed on how discrimination and state violence were lived by marginalized groups and how they responded to, and remembered specific and dramatic events over time.
State, Republic and the Minority: The (un)making of Muslims in France
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Locating her study on French Muslims and formation of Muslim identity in an era of anti-immigrant and refugee crisis, Fredette looks into the multi-layered oppression of French Muslims. Fredette engages in a critique of modern nation state and its ideals of democracy, citizenship and equality. Upon analysing the exclusionary nature of state apparatus, Fredette looks into education, employment and housing of French Muslims and the subsequent identity formation on being an immigrant. Fredette regards the racial and Islamophobic biases towards Muslims and immigrants as ideological fissures inherent in the making of modern nation state. What demarcate Fredette's study is her multiple positionality and analysis of diverse experienciality of being a Muslim in France - where identity is largely governed by class, ethnicity, race and gendered locations
Challenging The French Exception: ‘Islam’ and Laïcité
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Islam Francaise: The French States Response to a National Identity Crisis Rafia Khader
The 1905 law on the separation of church and state is often touted as being the hallmark of French laïcité. While it seems a simple enough concept, there are multiple meanings attached to laïcité. The purpose of this paper therefore lies beyond that of a textual analysis of the law. What I seek rather is to explore how such a broad concept as laïcité has been and is currently being appropriated by the state in the discourse of a French identity, the French identity some might say, in juxtaposition with the place of Islam in France. Or to pose the issue in another way: What does it mean to be French? What does it mean to be Muslim? And is it possible to be both? These are questions the French state has found itself struggling to answer. This paper will examine a few key actions taken by the state – the creation of the Grand Mosquée de Paris and the Conseil Français du Culte Musulman, its current immigration policy, and of course, the headscarf controversy – to show that the supposed confrontation between Islam and the ideals of the French republic have little to do with secularism, but rather with power and the state’s obsession with a monolithic “French identity.”
The present research intended to investigate the impact, in different groups, of the french public policies of laïcité that restrict the use of certain religious elements, opting to focus on sikh men and muslim women. Based on post-colonial theory, especially on the works of Achille Mbembe, Edward Said and Martha Nussbaum, it analyses specifically how factors of race, gender and immigration influence the impact of said policies, compared to the white, male, culturally christian and originally european frenchman. Throughout the work, it can be seen that the public policies of laïcité, which would allegedly guarantee the universality and equality of rights, end up excluding and harming the studied groups, in favor of the ideal french individual.
"Scholars assume the loss of Algeria in 1962 marked the end of French colonialism and a hardening of racialized categories of difference in France, overlooking how race and class categories became more porous in the DOMs after a new, welfare-led, French colonialism initiated by Prime Minister Michel Debré (elected deputy of La Réunion in 1963). Comparing social welfare provision in the DOMs before and after 1962 demonstrates that Debré’s new health insurance, family allocations and housing laws offered DOM populations improved social mobility beyond colonial-era racial boundaries. Welfare encouraged Réunion Islanders to support political attachment to France and undermined support for DOM autonomy movements. Combining scholarship on decolonization, French welfare and the social history of La Réunion, the article re-evaluates the place of Overseas French Departments in decolonization history, studies of French racial categories, and in modern France. En constatant que la perte de l'Algérie en 1962 a marqué la fin du colonialisme français et instauré, en France Métropolitaine, un durcissement des catégories raciales de différence, les chercheurs négligent que les catégories de race et de classe sont devenues moins rigides dans les DOM après la mise en place d'une nouvelle forme de colonialisme français, axée autour de l’état-providence et établie par l’ancien premier ministre Michel Debré (élu député de La Réunion en 1963). Comparer la protection sociale dans les DOM avant et après 1962 démontre que la nouvelle assurance santé, les allocations familiales et les lois anti-bidonville ont offert aux populations des DOM une amélioration de la mobilité sociale au-delà des possibilités de l’époque coloniale. L’état-providence a encouragé un attachement politique à la France tout en sapant le soutien pour l'autonomie des DOM. Cet article donne un regard croisé entre l’histoire politique de la décolonisation, l’histoire de la législation sociale et l'histoire sociale de La Réunion afin de réévaluer l’importance des DOM dans l'histoire de la décolonisation, les études des représentations raciales françaises, et dans l’histoire de la France moderne."