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Ya Biladi
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Ya Biladi
Islamophobia in France : A deepening divide and its historical roots
مدة القراءة: 3' In recent months, political and media debates in France have intensified around the term «Islamophobia». While the United Nations has adopted the term to describe racism based on religious affiliation with Islam, France remains divided on its use. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has repeatedly expressed his reservations, arguing that the term carries ideological undertones and overlooks the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and religious entryism. Some voices, including those cited by France Culture on Monday, trace its connotation to the Iranian Revolution of 1979. In the wake of the attack in La Grand-Combe on April 25, political leaders and civil society figures have denounced what they describe as a toxic, Islamophobic climate —though the French government prefers the term «anti-Muslim». On May 9, the murder was officially classified by the public prosecutor as «a homicide motivated by race or religion». In a May 3 interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, French Prime Minister François Bayrou made his position clear. Embracing the term « Islamophobia », he questioned the refusal to use what he called «the right words». «You can't fight what you refuse to name», he said. «Refusing a word because it forces you to face reality is something I've seen often in politics. Here, the facts are undeniable: a 22-year-old man murdered while praying in a mosque. His killer filmed the act and shouted insults against Allah. If this isn't hatred toward Islam, then what is?» he asked. A Divisive Term in the French Assembly While some see the term as ideologically loaded, others view it as essential to naming and combating a specific form of discrimination. According to France Culture, the word «Islamophobia» predates modern political Islam. It was initially used to describe prejudice and discrimination against Muslims—or those perceived as such. Over time, especially in activist circles, it was reappropriated to highlight overlooked dimensions of systemic discrimination. Sociologists Abdellali Hajjat and Marwan Mohammed, in their book Islamophobia: How French Elites Create the Muslim Problem (La Découverte), argue that the term refers not only to discriminatory acts, but also to a broader social phenomenon that reduces individuals to their presumed or actual religious identity. Islamophobia, they write, is «an ideology grounded in prejudice and systemic discrimination that goes beyond racism and is rooted in the notion of a 'Muslim problem'». They distinguish between various intersecting logics—anti-religious sentiment, sexism, and class-based racism—which, they argue, often converge on the «essentialization of Muslims». Following the 9/11 attacks, geopolitical shifts gave rise to what they call a distorted «Islam-Islamism-terrorism continuum», fueling Islamophobic narratives. In the Anglo-Saxon world, the term gained traction in the 1990s, particularly in the UK. Over time, critics warned that using «Islamophobia» could suppress legitimate criticism of religion and infringe on free speech. In France, sociologists argue, this suspicion has become mainstream—without much real debate. In a 2020 interview with Yabiladi, Marwan Mohammed criticized the narrowing of public discourse around Islamophobia in France. «We are witnessing the criminalization of political anti-racism, especially when it points to the responsibility of public institutions. This shift lacks any serious data or study», he said. Islamophobia Before Political Islam The term «Islamophobia» did not originate with modern Islamist movements. Some scholars trace its roots to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One early reference is found in Alain Quellien's 1910 work Muslim Policy in French West Africa, where he described Islamophobia as «a prejudice against Islam prevalent among peoples of Western and Christian civilization». In a 2015 chapter for the Trajectories and Origins survey published by INED, researchers Patrick Simon and Vincent Tiberj explored how debates over Islam in France have shaped public perceptions of Muslims. Drawing on the work of Hajjat and Mohammed, they highlighted how increasing politicization over the past two decades has affected both the visibility of Islam and the conditions of its reception in French society. «The tightening of the secular framework has had consequences for all religions», they wrote, «but especially for Islam, which has become central to public debate. The negative perception of Islam, and the restrictions placed on visible religious expression, have likely reinforced the sense of Muslim identity and elevated it beyond its spiritual or traditional dimensions». An International Perspective Since 2022, the United Nations has officially recognized March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia. The UN defines the term as «fear, prejudice, and hatred towards Muslims», often arising from «institutional, ideological, political, and religious hostility», which can evolve into structural or cultural racism targeting Muslims and Islamic symbols. On the 2025 commemoration of this day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned of rising sectarianism and intolerance worldwide. In his message, he described Islamophobia as part of a broader wave of extremism and hate, noting a surge in attacks on religious groups and vulnerable communities.
Ya Biladi
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Ya Biladi
Islamophobia in France : A deepening divide and its historical roots
In recent months, political and media debates in France have intensified around the term «Islamophobia». While the United Nations has adopted the term to describe racism based on religious affiliation with Islam, France remains divided on its use. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has repeatedly expressed his reservations, arguing that the term carries ideological undertones and overlooks the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and religious entryism. Some voices, including those cited by France Culture on Monday, trace its connotation to the Iranian Revolution of 1979. In the wake of the attack in La Grand-Combe on April 25, political leaders and civil society figures have denounced what they describe as a toxic, Islamophobic climate —though the French government prefers the term «anti-Muslim». On May 9, the murder was officially classified by the public prosecutor as «a homicide motivated by race or religion». In a May 3 interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, French Prime Minister François Bayrou made his position clear. Embracing the term « Islamophobia », he questioned the refusal to use what he called «the right words». «You can't fight what you refuse to name», he said. «Refusing a word because it forces you to face reality is something I've seen often in politics. Here, the facts are undeniable: a 22-year-old man murdered while praying in a mosque. His killer filmed the act and shouted insults against Allah. If this isn't hatred toward Islam, then what is?» he asked. A Divisive Term in the French Assembly While some see the term as ideologically loaded, others view it as essential to naming and combating a specific form of discrimination. According to France Culture, the word «Islamophobia» predates modern political Islam. It was initially used to describe prejudice and discrimination against Muslims—or those perceived as such. Over time, especially in activist circles, it was reappropriated to highlight overlooked dimensions of systemic discrimination. Sociologists Abdellali Hajjat and Marwan Mohammed, in their book Islamophobia: How French Elites Create the Muslim Problem (La Découverte), argue that the term refers not only to discriminatory acts, but also to a broader social phenomenon that reduces individuals to their presumed or actual religious identity. Islamophobia, they write, is «an ideology grounded in prejudice and systemic discrimination that goes beyond racism and is rooted in the notion of a 'Muslim problem'». They distinguish between various intersecting logics—anti-religious sentiment, sexism, and class-based racism—which, they argue, often converge on the «essentialization of Muslims». Following the 9/11 attacks, geopolitical shifts gave rise to what they call a distorted «Islam-Islamism-terrorism continuum», fueling Islamophobic narratives. In the Anglo-Saxon world, the term gained traction in the 1990s, particularly in the UK. Over time, critics warned that using «Islamophobia» could suppress legitimate criticism of religion and infringe on free speech. In France, sociologists argue, this suspicion has become mainstream—without much real debate. In a 2020 interview with Yabiladi, Marwan Mohammed criticized the narrowing of public discourse around Islamophobia in France. «We are witnessing the criminalization of political anti-racism, especially when it points to the responsibility of public institutions. This shift lacks any serious data or study», he said. Islamophobia Before Political Islam The term «Islamophobia» did not originate with modern Islamist movements. Some scholars trace its roots to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One early reference is found in Alain Quellien's 1910 work Muslim Policy in French West Africa, where he described Islamophobia as «a prejudice against Islam prevalent among peoples of Western and Christian civilization». In a 2015 chapter for the Trajectories and Origins survey published by INED, researchers Patrick Simon and Vincent Tiberj explored how debates over Islam in France have shaped public perceptions of Muslims. Drawing on the work of Hajjat and Mohammed, they highlighted how increasing politicization over the past two decades has affected both the visibility of Islam and the conditions of its reception in French society. «The tightening of the secular framework has had consequences for all religions», they wrote, «but especially for Islam, which has become central to public debate. The negative perception of Islam, and the restrictions placed on visible religious expression, have likely reinforced the sense of Muslim identity and elevated it beyond its spiritual or traditional dimensions». An International Perspective Since 2022, the United Nations has officially recognized March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia. The UN defines the term as «fear, prejudice, and hatred towards Muslims», often arising from «institutional, ideological, political, and religious hostility», which can evolve into structural or cultural racism targeting Muslims and Islamic symbols. On the 2025 commemoration of this day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned of rising sectarianism and intolerance worldwide. In his message, he described Islamophobia as part of a broader wave of extremism and hate, noting a surge in attacks on religious groups and vulnerable communities.
The Guardian
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Geneviève Page obituary
Screen and stage were not equal suitors for the affections of the French actor Geneviève Page, who once described working in cinema as a case of coitus interruptus. 'You start a scene, you rehearse it, you're ready. Then they do the sound and lighting. There comes a moment when you've got to charge in. And then: 'Cut!' It annoyed me each time,' Page told France Culture in 2009. 'Whereas when you arrive in your theatre dressing room in the evening, you know it'll start soon and you'll see it through right to the end.' Page, who has died aged 97, built a heavyweight theatre portfolio over more than five decades; she played roles such as Hermione in Euripides's Andromache, Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and the Fassbinder heroine Petra von Kant. But her film career had a stuttering rhythm, with the French industry never truly finding a place for her. Her melodramatic ardour and throaty timbre were not a natural fit in demure starlet roles; with her long neck and upwardly canted nose, her beauty had a certain haughtiness. Starting with the 1956 film noir Foreign Intrigue, opposite Robert Mitchum, Page instead found better deployment abroad in a series of beguiling impact roles: most notably as a princess offering a safe haven in the 1961 epic El Cid; the high-class brothel madam who gives Catherine Deneuve her soubriquet, Belle de Jour, in Luis Buñuel's 1967 masterpiece; and a German Mata Hari in Billy Wilder's revisionist detective story The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970). But she showed her true allegiance in the week in the late 1950s when she both signed a lucrative three-picture deal in Hollywood and joined France's prestigious Théâtre National Populaire (TNP), then under the stewardship of Jean Vilar, creator of the Avignon theatre festival. For Page, the latter was the big coup. 'I was proud as a peacock. I was under the impression I'd won the biggest medal possible,' Page told France Culture. 'Not in terms of being an actress, but in terms of being a person. It was their ethic and way of doing things: committing to the deepest level.' She was born in Paris, the second child of Jacques Bonjean, an art collector and gallerist, and his wife, Germaine (nee Lipman), a member of the family of Jewish watchmakers who founded the Lip brand. Geneviève and her older brother, Michel, grew up in this bourgeois-aesthete milieu with a young Christian Dior – with whom her father had founded his gallery – as her godfather. She was a bookworm whose imaginative tendencies brought her closer to her father, who was also a poet. 'I was constantly grabbing people to say: 'Look! Look at what I've just read!'' she recalled. 'And after a while, they'd say: 'Very nice, Geneviève. Now go back to your room.' Except for my father. So, from the moment he started taking an interest in me, that made life smoother.' After making her film debut in the 1950 Franco-German portmanteau film Ce Siècle à Cinquante Ans, Page's first role of note was as the Marquise de Pompadour in the 1952 swashbuckler Fanfan la Tulipe. Simultaneously, she took theatre lessons with the method-influenced Russian actor Tania Balachova and then at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique in Paris. This led to initial roles with the Comédie-Française, before – thanks to an introduction from her Fanfan co-star Gérard Philipe – she joined the TNP. Her father vetoed her going to Rome to film I Vitelloni for Federico Fellini, who could offer no script to reassure them about what she would perform. But Page made disconcerting choices of her own, picking out the role of a casino dancer paid to escort a bus driver who deems himself too ugly to be loved in The Strange Desire of Mr Bard (1954). In 1959 she married the businessman and future Club Med managing director Jean-Claude Bujard; they subsequently had two children, Thomas and Adélaïde. Casting around intrepidly for roles in the 60s, she also shot with the directors George Cukor (on the 1960 Liszt biopic Song Without End), John Frankenheimer (the Formula One drama Grand Prix, 1966) and Terence Young (the 1968 period tragedy Mayerling). Page auditioned for the surrealist Buñuel shortly after an accident in her Jaguar E-type; he was captivated by her bruised features and cast her as the stringent Madame Anaïs in Belle de Jour. Page was called upon to briefly kiss Deneuve on the lips, and the director asked her to do it without warning. 'I told him that if she slapped me, I'd give her one back,' Page later told Le Point. Bertrand Blier's Buffet Froid, in 1979, also exploited this sexually forbidding aura with her role as a nymphomaniac widow. All the while, Page continued her love affair with the stage. Playing Petra Kant for the Théâtre National de Chaillot earned her the French critics' union award for best actress in 1980; in 1997, she won the Prix Plaisir for her role as a monstrous grand dame of the theatre in Jean Anouilh's Colombe. Her final stage appearance was in 2011, playing the Roman empress Agrippina in Racine's 1669 play Britannicus. 'A bit wild, a bit daring, a bit nasty when needed,' was how Page summed up the majority of her stage roles. 'My dream since I was 25 or 30 was to play a wife, not particularly distinguished, in front of a sink with her children. Something more quotidian. But no one ever offered me that.' Her husband died in 2011. She is survived by Thomas and Adélaïde, and five grandchildren Adélie, Zoé, Balthazar, Géo and Nestor. Geneviève Page, actor, born 13 December 1927; died 14 February 2025
