Salah
Lamrani, CGT Éduc'action Clermont-Ferrand , 1/7/2023
The summer
period is notoriously prone to forest fires, a formidable threat to our natural
resources and the surrounding biodiversity. However, there is an even more
insidious danger spreading through our societies, undermining our values and
cohesion: irresponsible hate speech. A reminder of some recent occurrences is
in order.
Occitan
Hearth
At the end
of April, in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools in the
Academies of Toulouse and Montpellier [French southern cities of the Occitania
region], a survey on “absenteeism” during the month of Ramadan and the Eid
al-Fitr holiday, particularly affecting priority education zones
[underprivileged areas with a significant Muslim community], targeted
exclusively Muslim pupils. Commissioned by the Interior Ministry, this survey
was required from schools by the police and the Ministry of Education. This
situation provoked a legitimate outcry.
Following the denunciation of these stigmatizing
practices—which turn a basic practice of Islam into a security issue—fraught
with illegality, since religious statistics (even non-nominative ones) are
strictly regulated in France, the authorities, as usual, talked a lot of hot
air: “clumsiness”, “badly formulated message”, “autonomous research by an
intelligence officer”, “study of the impact of certain religious holidays on
the operation of public services”... As if cops were known for carrying out
sociological investigations in schools; as if a religion other than Islam had
ever been in the line of fire; as if occasional absences, provided for in the Education
Code and legally unassailable (for the time being), could harm the
functioning of Europe's most overcrowded classrooms—after Romania.
A
wet-finger estimate in [the right-wing newspaper] Le Figaro, announcing a “record absenteeism rate” on the day of
Eid al-Fitr 2023 due to an alleged “TikTok trend,” is said to have prompted this investigation, which is perhaps intended to provide more quantified
data for future witch-hunts. The data, moreover, is hardly usable, for while
some school heads and inspectors have encouraged staff to respond to these
tendentious surveys, which we can only deplore and denounce, others have
fortunately dissuaded them from doing so—not to mention the fact that it is
difficult to presume the reason for an absence on a Friday just
before the national school holidays.
The
question immediately arose as to the motives behind such a survey. Was it “only”
a question of stirring up yet another unfounded controversy at the expense of
the Muslim community? Or is the government planning to call into question an
acquired right that is in no way contentious, in the name of an ever more
narrow and misguided interpretation of secularism (which could tomorrow attack
pork-free or meat-free menus in school canteens, ban any refunding of half-boarding
fees for Muslim pupils during the month of Ramadan, etc.)? Will staff be the
next targets of these investigations? Already, some non-teaching staff have been refused a “religious
holiday” leave, which is
illegal and unacceptable. Any attempt to generalize these measures on the
pretext of “combating separatism” and “ensuring the smooth running of the
public education service” must be fiercely opposed.
PACA Hearth and
Ministerial Fuel to the Fire
On June 15, the Mayor of Nice and President of the
Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur (PACA) Regional Council, Christian Estrosi, issued
an alarmist press release denouncing “several
extremely serious incidents” which had occurred the previous day in three Nice
elementary schools, and which were reported to the School Inspection Office,
then to the Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes Department, and the Prime Minister,
Elisabeth Borne. The following day, the French Minister of Education, Pap
Ndiaye, went even further, speaking of “intolerable
facts,” the “mobilization of the Values of the Republic teams in all the
schools concerned to ensure full respect for the principle of secularism on a
permanent basis,” and the implementation of “the necessary government measures”
to ensure respect for secularism—or “laïcité”—in schools.
The alleged “facts”? Some children in 4th and 5th grades were said to have “performed
the Muslim prayer in their school playground” or organized “a minute's silence
in memory of the Prophet Mahomet[1].” These were nothing more than rumors, as
the expressions of doubt (“it is reported to me,” “or”) and the conditional
tense (“These unacceptable situations would also have taken place in secondary
schools”) clearly underlines. Worse still, before even the slightest
verification of these absolutely insignificant alleged facts (it's just a
handful of 9-10 year-olds having fun in the playground), Christian Estrosi
likened these “attempts at religious intrusion into the sanctuaries of the
Republic that are our schools” to “religious obscurantism attempting to
destabilize us” and to “families who left to wage jihad in Syria,” who are
reportedly beginning to return to France and sending their children “to our
schools.”
Pap Ndiaye(replaced in the recent cabinet
reshuffle by Gabriel Attal) and Christian Estrosi
And without even waiting for the results of “the General Inspectorate's
investigation to establish the facts precisely and draw the appropriate
conclusions” (no kidding), the full force of the law was brought to bear
against this allegedly dangerous “slide” (which at this stage has not even gone
beyond the stage of gossip): “meeting with all the departments concerned to set
up an action plan,” “reinforcement of State action to ensure that these attacks
on secularism are firmly combated,” “campaign to prevent and combat
radicalization,” “firm, collective, and resolute response,” setting up “secularism
and values of the Republic training courses” which “will be the subject of a
common module bringing together all personnel...” The joint press release from
Christian Estrosi and Pap Ndiaye concluded with a fanfare worthy of this outpouring
of catastrophist press releases, disproportionate means, and withering
epithets: “the principle of secularism is non-negotiable in our Republic.” Such
a display of paranoia and hysteria is not surprising from the reactionary clown
Estrosi, whose secular fervor is otherwise well known, but considering what Pap Ndiaye was before he
plunged body and soul into the political cesspool [Pap Ndiaye was a Professor
at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, focusing his
research on the compared history of racially discriminatory practices in France
and in America, and the Director of the French national museum of immigration],
one can only feel a bitter mixture of disgust and pity[2].
Christian Estrosi’s uncompromising crusade
for secularism: “Defending our Christian traditions also means defending the
heritage of our elders, who also built our Nice countryside”.
An Eternal Flame
The
deep-seated motivations behind such Islamophobic outbursts are well known and
have unfortunately become a constant in the discourse of Emmanuel Macron and
his minions. Having faced massive popular opposition with the pension reform,
they now resort to a despicable strategy of scapegoating, reminiscent of the
darkest hours of France’s history. In a notorious debate with Marine Le Pen,
President of the Far-Right Party “Rassemblement National” (National Rally), Macron’s
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin accused her of being “too soft” on Islam and
refusing to “name the enemy”: “You say that Islam isn't even a problem... You
need to take vitamins, you're not harsh enough!”
During a
special evening dedicated to Samuel Paty [French teacher who was beheaded by a
radicalized Islamist for showing his pupils derogatory Charlie Hebdo
cartoons depicting the Prophet of Islam], Darmanin also denounced “communitarianism”
and the “baser instincts” of “separatism” related to clothing or food (again,
no kidding). He criticized clothing stores offering “community outfits” and the
“halal sections” of supermarkets, portraying these as shocking practices. His
aim was to link these cultural practices, which are perfectly harmless and
consensual, to terrorism—a despicable process of amalgamation, stigmatization,
and the appropriation of far-right discourse that is increasingly overt in the
discourse and practices of Macron and his ministers.
Far from
deterring the Rassemblement National’s electorate, this trivialization has only
served to consolidate and grow it, providing a vigorous “vitamin” treatment
regularly administered to hate speech by those in power and their media echo
chambers.
The infamous Charlie
Hebdo contributed on this ominous issue with a cartoon (“School reinvents
itself” – “We bring our homework to school”) and a comment: “The question is how to deal with these cases, which
involve particularly young children. The ten-year-old boy who incited his
classmates to observe a minute's silence for the Prophet was the subject of
'worrying information' sent to the Alpes-Maritimes departmental council, as the
Nice education authority told Charlie Hebdo. An alert was also issued to the
prefecture for 'suspicion of radicalization'. 'The child doesn't become flagged
as a serious threat to national security,' we're told. The idea is for the
intelligence services to rule out any threat and check that the parents are not
dangerous.' In the meantime, the schoolboy has been excluded from the school
canteen and has taken an early vacation. 'We can't afford another Samuel Paty,'
says a member of the Rector's entourage.”
In any
case, it wouldn't be the first time that alleged TikTok “cyber-attacks on
secularism” or other unverified gossip causes an uproar in the services of the
Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of National Education. Let us mention
the controversies surrounding the wearing of the abaya and the deployment of the Orwellian concept of “improvised
religious clothing,” promoted during the dubious “laïcité” training courses
imposed on all teaching staff throughout France. These courses provide
instructions and even rhetorical and legal tools to track down alleged
intentions behind the “suspicious” dresses of presumably Muslim girls. A dress
bought at H&M could thus fall under the “law banning ostentatious religious
signs” (which really only targeted the Islamic veil) and earn the targeted
schoolgirls summons, reprimands, or even threats and exclusion if they refuse to dress in a “republican”
manner: a “morality police” doubled with a “thought police” in short. And it
seems that the French authorities have just introduced a “children's games
police.” Are we soon to see SWAT teams in primary school playgrounds? The
degree of insanity is such that a sneeze from a swarthy pupil that sounds
vaguely like “Allahu Akbar” would be enough to trigger such an intervention.
Extinguishing the fires or fanning them?
At a time
when violence, including far-right terrorism targeting our fellow Muslim citizens, is reaching
worrying proportions, the government persists in fanning the flames of hatred
with its pyromaniac actions, exacerbating the real dangers threatening civil
peace. The government's approach involves all-out repression, police and security
abuses with total impunity [the French police are lately becoming seditious and
openly rebellious, literally demanding a license to beat up and even kill
without being bothered by any kind of justice procedure], and
over-instrumentalizing trivial facts to raise the specter of fantasized
threats. These tactics only serve to pit citizens against each other and divide
the French society.
The
republican school urgently needs resources, not diversionary strategies,
artificial tensions, or a perpetual call into question of the status and
fundamental rights of users and staff. The “non-negotiable” secularism promoted
and ardently defended by the CGT Educ’action aims to ensure the serenity and
cohesion of the educational community, not to transform staff into zealous
police auxiliaries or confine an entire population to the status of suspect or “enemy
within,” to be constantly monitored and held at bay.
The
Republic guarantees freedom of worship and equal treatment for all its
citizens. Anyone committed to republican ideals must protest against this
frenzied desire to ignite bonfires from the most microscopic twigs, and against
stigmatizing and discriminatory practices that tarnish France's image abroad
and regularly elicit condemnations from human rights associations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. National Education staff, in particular, must oppose
these practices and report them to local union sections, which must vigorously
defend all members of the educational community (staff, pupils, parents…) who
fall victim to them.
Endnotes
[1] The
minute's silence isn’t precisely a well-known practice in Muslim liturgy. As
for the spelling “Mahomet,” we can only deplore the fact that despite the
presence of the first name Mohammed in the top 10 of most given names in the current French
population, and its position in the top 50 of names on French war memorials from the First
World War, this backward-looking and contemptuous
name dating from an era of antagonism between Christianity and Islam, and felt
as an insult by millions of Muslims, remains in use.
[2] Like a
downsized version of Voltaire fighting fanaticism in the days of the
Inquisition, Pap Ndiaye has also taken to TV to denounce these “manifestations
of religious proselytism in schools,” gargling in big words, notably BFM WC (“These facts are not acceptable in the School of
the Republic... It is only natural that the Nice Academy, the Nice Rector, and
the Nice Mayor should react firmly to ensure respect for the principles of
secularism, which is why I have signed this joint declaration with the Nice
Mayor... The parents have been summoned... The pupils have been reminded of
their obligations with regard to religious neutrality, and they have been given
training, because we're talking about children after all... In secondary
schools, [for similar acts] there can be sanctions [or even] temporary or
permanent exclusions...”). Pap Ndiaye did not hesitate to spread false
Islamophobic information, namely that these children all belonged to the Muslim
faith, which was denied by Eliane's testimony to BFM Côte d'Azur, whose non-Muslim grandson took part in these
children's games: “He should check his sources because my grandson was part
of the group playing and imitating prayer. There was no intention, no religion
in the middle, it was really just a game... The stigmatization of children is
really lamentable... That's why we no longer have confidence in politicians, because
everything is blown out of proportion to unbelievable proportions, and this
harms solidarity and life together.”
[3] Let us
remind that to be valid, Muslim prayer (especially in congregations) requires
the age of puberty, a precise timetable, ablutions, specific clothing,
orientation towards Mecca, etc.; so many conditions that it is simply
impossible to meet in an elementary school playground during the lunch break.
