Education, secularism, and illiberalism: Marginalisation of Muslims by the French state

Jonathan Hauser

doi:10.1177/09571558211007444

Abstract

Laïcité, France’s idiosyncratic principle of secularism, is a unique term that today engenders state forms of illiberalism, especially against marginalised communities in France. French Muslims experience instances of discrimination and ‘othering’ as the state endorses illiberal policies in the name of laïcité. These state acts of symbolic violence transgress political geographies and affect French Muslims’ perceptions of identification, citizenship, and belonging. Building on nine interviews with French Muslim higher education students, this article demonstrates ways in which illiberalism operates in the lives of French Muslim higher education students. It identifies the role of the French secular school in the making of gendered Islamophobia. This article serves as means for better understanding the lived experiences of French Muslims and recognising the socio-political changes that need to be made in France to protect and empower marginalised groups against state illiberalism.

Highlights

Rooted in its colonial and imperial histories, a Republican secularist tradition, and national constructions of authority, France’s rhetoric around Muslims arguably signifies the rise of an illiberal liberal democracy where the revolutionary ideals of liberté, égalité, and fraternité are applied unequally across France’s various ethno-cultural and religious groups (Asad, 2006; Balibar, 2013)
This research focuses on the role of laïcité as a form of state illiberalism – defined here as the institutional curtailing of civil liberties as described by Étienne Balibar (2013) in relation to ‘equaliberty’ – that has negative outcomes for French Muslim higher education (HE) students
For women, who are targeted by the state for the corporeal act of wearing the veil, the feeling of not belonging appeared as a result of the state’s attempts to promote Western womanhood

Summary

Introduction

Rooted in its colonial and imperial histories, a Republican secularist tradition, and national constructions of authority, France’s rhetoric around Muslims arguably signifies the rise of an illiberal liberal democracy where the revolutionary ideals of liberté, égalité, and fraternité are applied unequally across France’s various ethno-cultural and religious groups (Asad, 2006; Balibar, 2013). The resulting report gave the near-unanimous opinion that a law banning religious signs in schools should be passed, instigating an interventionist, secularising project that rivalled political liberalism (Daly, 2010) This is most clearly seen by how the Commission promoted laïcité in terms of gender equality. Existing research demonstrates that Muslim women represent a gendered and racialised category in the eyes of the French state as a consequence of laïcité In both the public and private spheres, they are simultaneously viewed as victims of paternalism and victimisers for freely choosing to wear the veil, as well as seen as symbols of communautarisme, proselytism, and Muslim misogyny (Gaudin, 2016; Lizotte, 2020) in what Teeple Hopkins (2015) coins ‘sexist Islamophobia’. The article will conclude with remarks on how further research into illiberalism in the state and discrimination is needed to understand how marginalised communities experience and are negatively impacted by state structures such as laïcité

Methods

Conclusion