Anti-Muslim racism has made France the Republic of Islamophobia
Emmanuel Macron managed to beat fascist Front National (FN) leader Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election this time last year.
“It demonstrated that a majority of voters were not prepared to see an openly Islamophobic party with fascist roots take over the highest office of the state,” argues socialist author Jim Wolfreys. But Le Pen’s vote also showed “that over 10 million people were”.
Wolfreys’ new book, Republic of Islamophobia, looks at how racism against Muslims has become the defining issue that seeps into every aspect of French politics.
“Identification with Islam marks individuals out as a potential ‘foreign’ threat” held back by “a religion that breeds riots, terrorism and the subjugation of women,” he writes. And the problem is that “this kind of politics has no end point”.
Emmanuel Macron managed to beat fascist Front National (FN) leader Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election this time last year. “It demonstrated that a majority of voters were not prepared to see an openly Islamophobic party with fascist roots take over the highest office of the state,” argues socialist author Jim Wolfreys. But Le Pen’s vote also showed “that over 10 million people were”. Wolfreys’ new book, Republic of Islamophobia, looks at how racism against Muslims has become the defining issue that seeps into every aspect of French politics. “Identification with Islam marks individuals out as a potential ‘foreign’ threat” held back by “a religion that breeds riots, terrorism and the subjugation of women,” he writes. And the problem is that “this kind of politics has no end point”. “Identification with Islam marks individuals out as a potential ‘foreign’ threat” held back by “a religion that breeds riots, terrorism and the subjugation of women,” he writes. And the problem is that “this kind of politics has no end point”.