Islamophobia in the country of human rights – Part 8
By Vincent Delbos-Klein*
France saw a spate of terror attacks in recent months that the authorities attributed to Muslim extremists. In an exclusive series, Vincent Delbos-Klein explains what Islamophobia means in a country which is de facto multi-cultural society.
Also read: In France if you don’t claim that you are Charlie, you might be a terrorist
When conversion to islam make you loose your “white pass”
What about the White People who become Muslim in France?
A few studies investigated this question in the academic field including a very interesting one by Solène Brun and Juliette Galonnier in 2016. First we can quote the example of famous people who have converted such as footballer Frank Ribery and singer Diams. Over the past decade, both of them have suffered from insults and contempt from a large audience and while people might argue that they are more critical of these people’s personalities than their religion, we’ll see that a very particular social phenomenon comes with conversion. But first let’s remember the ambiguity of the term ‘minority’ which in some cases means “less people in terms of number”, and in other cases means “minorated people”.
This is why in some cases, minorities can be more in terms of number in a group of people, but still being dominated. The White people who convert, experience joining a subordinate population, but also have to deal with “systematic reactions of hostility, reject and breakup with the their entourage”. It is thus not uncommon for them to expose themselves to suspicion or direct accusations of radicalisation, or even terrorism, and are frequently called upon to answer for their “free will”, supposedly put at risk, wronged by so-called “brainwashing”.
There is more still according to the article, “it is almost impossible to work in France with a hijab”. Being insulted, fired, dismissed, belittle and sometimes attacked, is a common issue for people whose “Islamity” is made visible. But the most surprising facts is that White People are no longer perceived as ‘White’ anymore when they carry a symbol of Islam such as a hijab for women and a specific beard or quamis for men. As the article explains, they experience being treated as ‘coloured’ people when they get converted to Islam, and are even considered as potential traitors. Some of them, born in France, white and recently converted, even describe that some people think “they speak good French” while some others notice “they have an accent”.
This means that with Islam, the process of racialization is not only a question of skin colour, but also a question of cultural assignment. As one interviewed says, once you become Muslim “you loose your white card”, and as we previously said, not only a not-anymore-white-person but also a suspect, a potential traitor, not only to the white race, but also to the country.
Known for its “colour-blind ideology”, France also take measures to keep distance from any analysis of its own situation. In universities, despite the ban on making ethnic statistics and the very marginalised and subordinate status of people who dare to debate, some newspapers often claim that the French university is invaded by “Islamo-leftists” ready to prepare a bloody revolution. This might sounds like a joke if deputies recently tried to create a debate about this on the French Assembly. Many accusations came from the extreme right wing towards people who fight against dominations : communautarist, indigenist and more recently separatist. This last one might be the most dangerous of all. Of course, no one initially chose to be rejected and marginalised from society and its political, economical and cultural power because of a racial issue.
Numerous studies, including the one we have described here, are precisely objective about the process of racialisation that people suffer from. As evil as it can seem, the French government is nowadays talking about a law against separatism, that means many thing : first that people are made responsible for being marginalised; then create a confusion between terrorism and Islam; and last but not least, that freedom of speech and debate is more and more considered as a white privilege in a country where white privilege can not officially be mentioned.
So who knows nowadays if a person who converts does not get a “fiche S”, this famous secret file that allows the police to survey you without any notification. This is how the argument of Islamism became the Trojan Horse of a turning point dedicated to security which considerably reduced freedom for all.
*Vincent Delbos-Klein is a Paris-based filmmaker and a researcher in sociology
