Who were the « Charlie » in the Streets? A Socio-Political Approach of the January 11 Rallies [Qui étaient Les “Charlie” dans la rue ? Approche Socio-Politique des Rassemblements du 11 Janvier] (original) (raw)
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The Charlie Hebdo shootings of January 2015 represent a critical juncture that changed the Europea n public debate, at both the EU and national level. The controversies that followed the attacks had d eep effects on mainstream institutional actors, social movements and subaltern publics across Europ e. Furthermore, in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks contentious issues related to the role o f religion in secular societies, civil rights and freedom of speech, accommodation of cultural diversit y and securitization of migration are once again in the middle of public sphere debates in Europe. The conference aims at analysing the effects of these attacks on the content and quality of public de bates across Western European societies, paying special attention to dynamics of deliberation and p olarization across public spheres, and to the interplay between mass media and social movements in the construction of public discourse. This event will bring together scholars reflecting on the consequences of critical junctures from mul tiple perspectives. It will also offer a space to present the preliminary findings of the ongoing projec t led by Donatella della Porta at SNS, as part of the ERC Advanced Scholars' Grant Mobilizing for Democracy, which will provide qualitative and quantitative insights from individual case studies in France, Germany, Italy, UK and Denmark. Scuola Normale Superiore Centre on Social Movement Studies European Research Council
The "Protests against Charlie Hebdo
2015
In many Muslim countries in West Africa and beyond, "protests against Charlie Hebdo" occurred when citizens went out on the streets following Friday prayers on 16 January 2015. However, only in Niger did these protests turn extremely violent. This report analyses the social, political and religious workings behind the protests in Niger. In doing so, it shows that the so-called "protests against Charlie Hebdo" are only superficially linked to the Muhammad cartoons by the French satirical magazine. Similarly violent protests have occurred in Niger-often in the town of Zinder-for quite different reasons and on different occasions in recent years. The report therefore argues against simplistic notions of religious fundamentalism and shows that the protests can be explained more appropriately in terms of politics and socioeconomic exclusion. " Manuscript
The Rise of Populism and Violent Extremism in France: Two Sides of the Same Coin
EuropeNow, Council for European Studies (CES), Columbia University, 2018
In one of the feature essays, Aude Jehan analyzes the rise of populism and violent extremism in France over the past several decades, tracing tensions in identity politics and the impact of long-term feelings of marginalization among France’s Muslim communities, which represent the largest Muslim population in Europe. Describing trends including political leaders’ declarations of multiculturalism’s failure, state polices banning headscarves, growing anti-immigrant and anti-Islam sentiment among the general public, and the impact of the Paris 2015 terror attacks on recorded acts of racism and Islamophobia, Jehan explains the underlying developments that have contributed to voters’ frustration, anger, and criticism of traditional French political parties and the rise in support for Marine Le Pen and the far right more broadly. In the second half of her essay, Jehan describes President Macron’s new strategy to counter radicalization and fight terrorism, called “Prevent to Protect.”
Muslim citizens! After the January 2015 Paris attacks: French Muslims and France’s republican model
The January 2015 killings in Paris reignited the republicanism vs. multiculturalism debate. Many responses to the events were founded on the assumption of a radical incompatibility between France’s republican model and the aspirations of its Muslim population. This assumption corresponds to a tendency in postcolonial studies to draw a sharp dividing line between Western values and the ‘Other’. The claim of the article is that French minorities in general, and their Muslim component in particular, are committed to France’s republican principles, which they contributed to defining by appropriating the ideals of the French revolution. I trace this appropriation from colonial times to the present day, and claim that French postcolonial citizens are more concerned with equality than identity, that the structural conditions of extremism are to be found in the lack of equality, and that issues surrounding Muslims in France can be addressed within the framework of laicité.
Investigating the relation between French Muslims and French secularism since Charlie Hebdo
After the massacre of Charlie Hebdo’s cartoonists, defying reactions by an alarming number of Muslim pupils left a complex societal issue exposed in France. National Education minister Vallaud-Belkacem reported 200 incidents in schools — including 40 cases of glorification of terrorism and umpteen refusals to observe the declared minute of silence. Teachers reported comments such as “They got what was coming to them. You do not mock the Prophet” (Astier, 2015) or “We’ll keep shooting Charlie Hebdo” (Pech, 2015). Frequent attacks in the name of Allah have revived debates on the place of Muslims within the French society and on the compatibility between Islam and the secular and liberal values of the République. In the meantime, new iconic figures — such as Latifa Ibn Ziaten — have emerged as the conciliatory voice of a republican Islam in the public discussion. Two legitimate questions therefore arise : who are French Muslims and is French secularism really that problematic ? Indeed, a common complaint is that laïcité hampers the inculcation of fully French identity in citizens of Muslim background. Further complicating the situation and considering the Muslim character of the terrorist threat, Muslims are more than ever on the spotlight in a country whose strong sense of nationhood demands constant proof of loyalty from immigrants and their descendants (Simon, 2012:2). Besides, the resentment caused by this vulnerable position has led to the development of what Tim Aistrope calls a “Muslim paranoia narrative” (Aistrope, 2016). Muslim youths are thus particularly exposed to conspiracy theories and distorted interpretations of politics. Because jihadist recruiters exploit these deluded worldviews in order to attract alienated individuals, the Muslim paranoia narrative constitutes the bedrock for radicalisation and a serious danger for social cohesion (Aistrope, 2016:6). On the other hand, not only do schools have to deal with conspiracy theories in the era of YouTube, but they also have a duty to form tolerant French citizens. Drawing on the results of a rigorous survey conducted by Institut Montaigne/Ifop on the sociology of French Muslims, this article tries to contrast the reality of this specific population with the conditions and requirements of laïcité. Moreover, the conception of “Frenchness” is discussed, highlighting the link between the grievances it causes and the emergence of the conspiratorial fantasy that fuels radicalisation. Institut Montaigne recommends the establishment of an “Islam de France” in order to make a difference. Nonetheless, would this project mobilise French Muslims against fundamentalism ?
Emotional Responses to the Charlie Hebdo Attacks: Addressing the Authoritarianism Puzzle
Political Psychology, 2017
The finding that threat boosts the public's preferences for authoritarian policies has been well established in the research literature. Why this shift occurs remains open as the extant literature reports contradictory findings regarding the interaction of dispositions, such as conservatism and authoritarianism, with threat. One line of research argues that threat increases authoritarian preferences among those who are more prone to authoritarianism. Another argues that it is those with a nonauthoritarian ideology who switch in response to threat. By using a two‐wave panel study of the French population taken before and after the January 2015 twin attacks in Paris, we find that both trends occur simultaneously. Our results show that the factors that drive the impact of ideological dispositions on support for authoritarian policies are emotional reactions. On the one hand, anxiety led left‐wing respondents to move towards adopting authoritarian policy preferences following the at...
The impact of terrorist events on attitude formation and change among mass publics has been well established in political research. Still, no individual-level study has examined the impact of terrorist attacks on political participation. This article aims to fill this gap. Drawing on theories of affect, I predict that fear stemming from a terrorist attack will increase motivation to seek out political information, yet will have a negative effect on actual participation. On the contrary, anger will hinder information-seeking but will boost the intention to participate in political rallies. I test these hypotheses using data from a two-wave panel study that collected one wave before and a second wave after the January 2015 Paris attacks, and from one cross-sectional study carried out soon after the November 2015 attacks. Existing work has illustrated that following a terrorist attack, citizens become more prone to endorsing authoritarian policies at the expense of civil liberties, more supportive of high-risk, aggressive political actions such as military interventions, and less tolerant of out
Critical Studies on Terrorism, 2019
Victimhood remains under analysed in the Critical Terrorism Studies literature, including the abilities of Muslim victims of terror attacks to blurring social boundaries and possibly de-securitise Muslims in Europe. This is of specific importance in France, which has not only suffered the most terror incidents in Europe in the past five years but also is a country where Muslims have been securitised for decades. This paper uses a mixed methods approach to analyse twitter data for the #jesuisahmed hashtag used to commemorate the Muslim police officer killed in the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and the le monde online memorials created in the wake of the Paris and Nice terror attacks. This analysis demonstrates French Muslim victimhood attacks blur Muslim social boundaries, influences the way that terror events are constructed and also present opportunities for the desecuritisation of Muslims in France. Muslim victimhood does this through three key themes – Muslims being situated as defenders of European values on twitter, Muslimbiographies demonstrating “banality” in the le monde online memories and visual nuances of group identity through victim photos included in the le monde memorial. However, these narratives also can re-enforce a problematic good/ bad Muslim dichotomy.