Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

“Given that each of the three forces has roughly two-thirds or more of the electorate who did not choose them, and each of them has thus been rejected by a majority of French voters, the message from the people is clear: we do not want to be governed by any of you. We do not want any of you in power, at least not solely.  The far right will thus not suffer, but on the contrary - it will benefit from the mess, political chaos and possible institutional deadlock that lies ahead, along with the potential policy failures of those who govern.” Yes, Alain Gabon. However, the article ignores French capitalism and imperialism and the French security state and provides a ‘nationalist’ domestic analysis, ignoring geopolitics and inter-societal determinants. 

Note:  Gabon mentions the ‘egalitarian principles of the French Republic’. I wish he referred to when in its history the Republic has ever had those egalitarian principles in reality. Gabon does not put the word ‘Islam’ in inverted commas. Is ‘Islam’ one as it is often portrayed or attacked? Does the French state have a problem with the ‘Islam’ of the Saudi monarchy? Does it have a problem with the .’Islam’ of el-Sisi in Egypt?  Did the French state have any problem with Bourguiba’s and Ben Ali’s regimes when they banned the headscarf in Tunisia public institutions and repressed those who broke the law? ******* “Even more surprisingly given the extremist and openly anti-Republican nature of Philippe’s declarations - even former presidential candidate  Marine Le Pen  never advocated anything like this - there has been little reaction from the political class, media, and public intellectuals, with the notable exception of an  open letter  by a handful of acad...

The wrong kind of secularism

Priorities of a ‘neoliberal’ regime

Another example of the fragmentation of modern social thought : marginalisation, ghettoisation, inequality, unemployment, class … do not feature in this good article as an answer to the ‘why’ in the title, and it gives the impression that a ‘Muslim’ is not affected by those socio-economic phenomena along racism, ‘Islamophobia’ and police violence. Update: Alain Gabon responded to a question I had sent to him with the following: The Middle East Eye  editorial policy “dictates that a piece must be read in 5 mns and be easy reading, due to the fact everybody reads online on their cells these days).”  “Rather than a repetition  of History ,” wrote Gabon in his draft article, “all those  interrelated events —the murder of the Arabic youth, the  banlieues  riots recalling those of 2005, and this new legal discrimination against the ‘ hijabeuses ’— a re different  symptoms  of the  same long , deep, and structural problem s  that France—its va...

Also available en Français The French obsession with the veil Related The Imaginary Separatism of Salafist Women

A very good approach. Semitism and Islamophobia as parallel manifestations of contemporary racism

 “ Neither Jean-Luc Mélenchon nor Emmanuel Macron know what  laïcité  [French state secularism] is , yet Macron wants to teach Muslims that “Islam is in crisis.” 

 “ The point I try to make in that article is that the debate on whether Jews should be accorded full political rights in 1840s Prussia presents some striking similarities with the debate on Muslims’ integration into French society today. More precisely, my point is that the French state’s demand that religious minorities (and let’s be frank, Muslims in particular) respect the principle of secularism in the public space is reminiscent of Bruno Bauer’s position on the Jewish Question. Bruno Bauer believed that the Jews deserved to be granted political rights only if they stopped being Jews and embraced Enlightenment thought. In other words, he conceived of political emancipation as a kind of award that individuals receive only if they renounce their own religious identity and embrace the identity that the secular state deems as appropriate. Likewise, the French state demands that Muslims get rid of their religious/cultural practices if they want to show willingness to integrate into...

Neither Mélenchon nor Macron know what laïcité [secularism] is