2015, a terrible year for France, which has been hit by an unprecedented wave of terrorism. On January 7, the editorial staff Charlie Hebdo destroyed. The next day, a police officer was shot dead in Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine). Two days later, the Hyper Cacher at the Porte de Vincennes in Paris was raided. Although the national territory was placed on maximum alert, this did not prevent the horrific attacks of 13 November from being carried out at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), at the Bataclan and on the terraces in the 10th and 11th arrondissements of Paris. In total, there were almost 150 people killed and several hundred people injured in these attacks which make Islamism a common factor – the attacks were claimed by Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State organization (ISIS).
A few months before the terrorist massacre, in September 2014, the CNRS had published the “White Paper on French Studies in the Middle East and the Muslim World”, a report dealing with the situation of research in France in these fields. Written under the leadership of historian Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen, in consultation with representatives of the relevant laboratories, it sounds the alarm: “French Islamology, namely the study of Islam as a religion and system of thought, is threatened with extinction, while Islam is growing rapidly everywhere in the world. (…). » However, the author insists, “In-depth and truly scientific study of these texts remains a necessity at a time when so many Islamic schools are using these sources precisely, at a time when sales of Arabic books are huge, all over the world, including France, pre-modern Islamic religious books”.
In fact, the data in this White Paper prove surprising: the absence of replacement of retired professors – Arabic history of the Islamic religion, from the 15th centurye in the 19th centurye this century, it is no longer taught anywhere in France, for example; subsupervision of students; lack of command of Arabic – the only Maghreb history professor existing at the time did not read this language, while university libraries almost no longer purchased books in Arabic, and only prestigious publications, such as Journal of Islamic Studies in 1998, it ceased publication.
You have 88.88% of this article left to read. The remainder is provided to customers.
