DSix years after the November 13 massacre, five years after the murder of Samuel Paty, France appears dazed. It was as if astonishment had turned to exhaustion, then to denial. Islamism – has it ever been confronted directly? – is now spreading to everyday life and institutions. He no longer enforces fear through violence alone; it thrives under the guise of respectability, minority demands, the “right to be different,” and even, with a remarkable paradox, trade union struggles or even the defense of women’s freedom. And in the face of it, the Republic, weakened by divisions and paralyzed by the fear of being accused of discrimination, Islamophobia, the magic wand of the mullahs, is going backwards step by step.
Ten years ago, Bataclan terrorists shouted “Allahu akbar” while killing young people who had come to listen to music. Their servants invaded Paris’ terrace. Ten years ago they killed Charlie and slaughtering Jews in Hyper Kosher. Their hatred is directed at joy, freedom, diversity, life itself. This was directed at the French as they saw themselves. Five years ago, Samuel Paty was beheaded for showing caricatures of Muhammad in class, during a freedom of expression course. His death should remind us that this Republic is based on the right to criticize and caricature religion, all religions, without threat or terror.
However, the emotions and determination that emerged as a result of this despicable act were dashed. In many schools, teachers practice self-censorship. At universities, “decolonial” or “intersectional” conferences attack secularism, which they accuse of Islamophobia, when they do not trumpet their support for Hamas and its massacre on October 7, 2023, which eviscerated and raped women, and killed children. Among the remaining democratic left, only certain bold elected officials and those exiled to social media have dared to denounce Islamism. Others are too afraid to “stigmatize”, their brains are turned to victimization, the Muslim Brotherhood’s best and oldest weapon. In society itself, the veil has become a sign of enforced decline as freedom. Anyone who rebels against his yoke is nothing but a fascist. When we know the historical organic connection between the Muslim Brotherhood and Nazism, it is truly amazing…
The Republic, instead of exuding pride in its principles and ideals of emancipation, now preaches caution. Rather than protecting freedom of conscience, it ignores the vulnerabilities of religion. We fear scandal more than we fear slavery.
The radical left, an unwitting ally of Islamism
Islamism is no longer satisfied with the doctrine of separation: it has found allies among the radical left, which has replaced the logic of victimhood with universalism. From “Islamophobia” being labeled as a political weapon for the Palestinian cause and being diverted into hatred towards Israel and Jews, these discourses are converging. Philosopher Pascal Bruckner warns: Islamo-leftism is not an ideological alliance but a moral abdication. It consists of excusing fanatics in the name of their oppressed status, justifying hatred in the name of suffering, turning executioners into victims.
We no longer talk about the evils of Islam; we accuse those who denounce them. We no longer condemn hate preachers; we track those who dare to speak out about Islamism. The Enthoven affair marked a turning point. When an intellectual can describe LFI as “grossly anti-Semitic” without a court seeing any insult, it is because Republicans recognize, implicitly, that hatred of Jews has reinvested political life under progressive trappings.
Fear has become our collective horizon. Afraid to call names, afraid to be unpleasant, afraid to divide. We lock ourselves in denial or distraction. Large institutions, starting from National Education, are increasingly reluctant to accept intimidation. Police protected synagogues and Jewish schools under permanent siege. The court was more moved by “symbolic injury” than by calls for murder.
Public authorities appear to be exhausted. Between calls for “tolerance,” campaigns against “systemic racism” and disruptive attitudes, the Republican Party’s message has been diluted. However, Islamism actually thrives in weak areas: it occupies spaces left empty by shame and self-loathing.
Secularism, which is a basic principle, is no longer seen as an ideal of emancipation, but as an administrative obstacle. Politicians oscillate between complacency and fear. And when figures from the liberal Muslim world, such as Kamel Daoud or Boualem Sansal, recall the price of freedom, they are accused of “treason” or “neocolonialism”, or even, of course, of being members of the extreme right.
Anti-Semitism has once again become the glue of hatred, the intersection point between Islamism and the radical left. You only have to listen to certain pro-Palestinian demonstrations, where slogans against Israel quickly turn into threats against the Jewish people, to gauge the extent to which the phenomenon, thanks to the magic word, anti-Zionism, allows Jews to be hated with complete impunity.
READ ALSO Kamel Daoud: “Free, El-Fasher free? » France is looking elsewhere. He pretends not to see that yesterday’s Islamist attacks, today’s anti-Semitism and hatred of the Republic form the same ideological system: a deep rejection of freedom and reason, equality between the sexes, free thinking, critical thinking. It was in the name of this hated freedom that the Kouachi brothers killed their cartoonists Charlie Hebdothat the killers Samuel Paty, Dominique Bernard and many others attacked, so the November 13 terrorists shot. Ten years later, their terrible legacy is still not dead: only disguised.
The Republic must not be content with mourning its martyrs at every anniversary. He had to relearn how to say no: no to relativism, no to fear, no to religious intimidation. This no is not a rejection of French Muslims who practice their faith peacefully within the framework of the law; this is the rejection of fanatics and their political supporters who wish to impose their laws on the Republic.
Rediscover the courage of the Enlightenment
There is an urgent need to rediscover the courage of the Age of Enlightenment: namely to openly denounce Islamism, to fight the return of the ban on blasphemy, to think freely, to ridicule the establishment and its dogmas, to defend truth against lies. It is an obligation to be clear. “Tolerance becomes evil when applied to evil,” wrote Thomas Mann. Today’s republic is too tolerant of crime, out of fatigue or fear of being seen as unjust.
What’s left of our outburst? France must choose. Either they fully embrace their secular and universalist heritage, or they give up and become a fragmented society, subject to fear and censorship.
This republic has the faces of women who refuse to wear the hijab, teachers who continue to speak out about freedom of expression, writers who risk their lives to defend common sense. It is this face that must be saved and the urgency becomes even more urgent when Marine Le Pen wants to convince us that it is her features that are increasingly emerging behind Marianne’s face.
To find
Kangaroo today
Answer
Islamism does not surround the Republic: it spreads, like a slow drug, maintained by the cowardice of some and the complicity of others. He would not overthrow him with violence, but with humiliating consent. And if we are not careful, one day France will no longer be what it once was: not a territory, but a promise given to freedom.
*Jean-Pierre Sakoun is president of Unité Laïque.
