In motion this Monday, May 26 in Nanterre on Monday, May 26, to reveal the main lines of his policy against “Islamist entry”, Bruno Retailleau explained why he refused to use the word “Islamophobia” to designate discrimination against Muslims.
“Islamophobia is a word that I do not use because it was forged by Muslim Brotherhood itself,” the Interior Minister launched after the submission of an explosive report on the influence of this political-religious movement in France.
The word “Islamophobia” is used to the left, particularly by the rebel of France, the PS or even the environmentalists. “That Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his friends speak as Tariq Ramadan’s disciples should no longer surprise anyone,” said Bruno Retailleau.
First use by French ethnologists
If the report in charge in 2024 by Gérald Darmanin inhabits extensively in the term “Islamophobia”, calling it “concept trapped”, does not attribute paternity to the Muslim Brotherhood.
As the Parliamentary Advisor François Malaussena, the true origin of the term Islamophobia is detailed on page 22 of the document, in a box entitled “Origins and crystallization of the concept of Islamophobia”. This is what we read there:
“Historically, the term Islamophobia would have been used for the first time in French at the beginning of the 20th century, by the ethnologists present in Africa concerned with the rejection of the Muslim religion by the administration of the old colonies. There were two meanings: ‘Islamophobia of the government’ referred to a differentiated treatment of Muslims in the colonial administration ‘and’ ” ‘.
According to the report, the term will experience a “broad dissemination” after a report by the British Expert Group Runnymede Trust in 1997. But it really won the public debate of the attacks of September 11, 2001, “a turning point” according to the authors.
A concept used to “discredit” secularism measures
Even so, according to this document, Islamophobia would designate more “a form of” cultural racism “than a” religious intolerance “: we are not pointing to Islam as faith, but the fact of being Muslim, hence the choice of certain authors to talk about” anti -musulmán. “However,” many are intrinsically connected to Islam and the rejection of Muslims. “
If the term “Islamophobia” can be discussed, the authors of the report affirm, however, that the Muslim brotherhood is instrumentalized “to discredit the measures inspired by the principle of secularism, presented as a state racism aimed at Muslims.”
Bruno Retailleau spoke on Monday for the first time since the official publication, on Friday night, after large leaks in the press, of a report that reports a “threat to national cohesion” with the development of Islamism “from below” of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Source: BFM TV
