Liveblog de la conférence – Attitudinal change towards Jews and Muslims in France in a comparative perspective
Bonjour, bienvenue sur ce live blog de la conférence du Centre d’études européennes sur l’islamophobie et l’antisémitisme dans la France contemporaine. La langue officielle de cette réunion, et celle utilisée pour le live-blog, sera l’anglais. Pour le programme complet de la conférence, cliquez sur l’image ci-dessus.
88% of Jews say they have been subject to racism because of their religion. That’s the case for 29% of Muslims, who cite origin as a major discriminatory factor (81%).
51% of Jews tell of an experience with racism, but only 40% of Muslims. For discrimination, it’s the opposite : 22% of Jews say they have been discriminated against, compared to 35% of Muslism. So the definition of attitudes is not the same according to the religion.
French Muslims are less eager to define themselves as French. Just under 50% of French Muslims say they are seen as French
Homogamy : only 40% of muslims only meet muslims, as compared to more than 50% of catholics. So clustering is not where we think
Following are a few tables shown by Patrick Simon found here : http://www.ined.fr/fichier/t_telechargement/45660/telechargement_fichier_fr_dt168.13janvier11.pdf
Patrick Simon of the Institut National des Etudes Demographiques (INED) talks about the TeO survey. Here it is http://teo_english.site.ined.fr/
The antisemitism observatory in 2011 was cited by Rosa Maria de Codes. Here it is : http://observatorioantisemitismo.fcje.org/wp-content/uploads/wpcf7_uploads//2012/08/informe-antisemitismo-2011-.pdf
The civil war reopened antisemitic discourse : the jewish-freemason conspiracy was part of the three-headed hydra described by the Franco discourse
Contreras : Spain did not experience such experiences as the Dreyfus affair. The French, the Moroccans, and different ideological opponents were the ennemies of spain. Not the Jews
Rosa Maria Martinez de Codes and Jaime Contreras
52% of interviewees answered that muslims did not mix with the general population. This intertwined with traditional, historical clichés towards the Moors in Spain.
In Spain, the debate was between those who saw islam as a terrorist thrat and those who avoided such images
Difficult to estimate the musulim population in Spain. By national origins, the muslim population is approximately 1 million, i.e. 2%. Of those, 72% are Maroccans. Here is an article by Euro-Islam.info http://www.euro-islam.info/2010/03/08/islam-in-spain/
Rosa Maria Martinez de Codes : 20% of Spanish population is made up of immigrants.
Spain makes its entry onto the stage : Rosa Maria Martinez de Codes from the Complutense University in Madrid and Jaime Contreras from Alcala.
Their book : https://histoires-de-cultes.fr/10/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2013-04-18-16.53.15-757×1024.jpg
Note on the politics of victimhood : could be taken as bad faith, but not the case at all. Language help people make sense of their place in the world.
David Feldman and Nonna Mayer
David Feldman commenting on the « politicisation of eugenics » and citing Francis Galton, the founder of eugenics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton
2 differences btween France and the UK : indirect rule and state funding of the anglican church.
Feldman : The politics of multiculturalism in the UK developed after the Rushdie affair in 1989. It used to be about social disadvantage of the black underclass. After Rushdie, it was defined in religious terms. Once leading politicians talked about a multi-faith, the Jews had a role. They became engaged in a political dynamic of victimhood.
1200 anti-muslim incidents vs. 645 antisemitic incidents in 2010. Spike in 2009 when they reached more than 900. http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/UK-anti-Semitic-incidents-fall-in-2011
In Britain, Islamophobic incidents are less documented than anti-semitic incidents. This is thanks to pioneering Community Security Trust http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Security_Trust
Muslims in Britain are rather different from Muslims in France. The largest push forward came from Pakistani immigrants, then Bengladesh and India. More recently from Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia
While the jewish population has declined, whereas the muslim population has been rising in striking proportions.
The figures for England and Wales : 300 000 Jews in Britain in the 2011 census, just under 3 million muslims
David Feldman taking the mic to talk about the situation in Britain
Arieh Kochavi is head of the Strochlitz institute of holocaust studies http://holocaust-center.haifa.ac.il/index.php/researchers-at-the-institute/11-prof-arieh-j-kochavi-
Arieh Kochavi engages in the rather difficult exercise of putting the israli-palestinian conflict in historical perspective.
Arieh Kochavi on the microphone to present the conference, part of an international comparative programme launched in 2011 by historians at the University of Haïfa : himself and Yael Granot-Bein.
Noiriel and Mayer laughing at the « pain au chocolat » episode
Scholars contributed to the ethnicisation and the racialisation of social discourse.
Noiriel remembers the « pain au chocolat » episode by Jean-François Copé http://www.bfmtv.com/politique/pain-chocolat-retour-une-polemique-quatre-actes-420688.html
The efficacy of the racist speech is that they offer another explanation of social misfortunes (Noiriel)
The freedom of the media is also a factor : Drumont was a journalist and published his book 5 years after the liberalisation of the press. Drumont used the « Faits Divers » pages of the newspapers to fascinate the readers and set two main characters : the French and the Jew.
Noiriel talking about Edouard Drumont’s « La France juive ». The interests of the bourgeoisie were then threatened by the workers and the rhetoric of the class struggle. Drumont replaced the bourgeoisie by the jews in a « rhetoric of the inversion ». This in turns informs islamophobia today. Jews were not victims but agressors, they are powerful and act in the shadows.
Racism was coined during the Dreyfus affair, and then to describe the programme of the Nazis. Only after the 2nd world war was it used to describe the difference between us and them
Prejudices against jews existed since the times of the ghost. But anti-semitism appeared in the 1880′s as an effect of the politicisation of prejudice against the jews
Levi Strauss : all human groups have built their identity in the cleavage between « us » and « them ». But what changed in time are the historic events which change the definition of prejudice. Racism is the political shaping of prejudices against foreigners. But it is used wrongly to describe its political uses.
Gérard Noiriel takes the mic. He’s a historian of immigration in France, but his wikipedia page wasn’t translated into english. Here’s an article by him in English http://www.jstor.org/stable/2124485
The Albert Memmi prize will be given on saturday to the winner of a poster competition.
This is not just an academic conference : on saturday the conference will deport itself to the Goutte d’Or and then meet with associations.
You cannot understand racism if you don’t know about all sorts of prejudice, as described for example by Adorno
We know that racism is bad. So it changes in form. Now we have « subtle racism », « symbolic racism », « soft racism » taking place.
Prejudice towards jews and muslims : very topical. France has the most self-described Jews and Muslims in Europe. Rise of 23% of antisemitic acts and threats. The negative opinion towards arabs has been on the rise.
Word of introduction by Nonna Mayer from the CEE and CNRS
« Quart d’heure académique »: in other words the participants are late…
The conference is held in room A11 at 27, rue Saint Guillaume, the main sciences po building
Speakers and spectators are preparing for the conference
Fin de la présentation de Patrick Simon, et fin de ce live-blog. Merci de l’avoir suivi. Les enregistrements du symposium seront publiés ici : http://www.cee.sciences-po.fr/fr/agenda/details/452-attitudinal-change-towards-jews-and-muslims-in-france-in-a-comparative-perspective.html