NOTES TO PAGES 510–12a prime minister of West African or Arab origin is even conceivable in this secular Republic that
claims to see no religious or ethnic differences among its citizens.
- See the excellent article by Dominique Vidal, ‘‘Les Pompiers pyromanes de l’antise ́mi-
tisme,’’Le Monde Diplomatique, May 2004, which recounts the mounting accusations of anti-Semi-
tism against anyone publicly critical of Sharon’s policies toward the Palestinians. Vidal argues
powerfully for ajointcampaign against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, in spite of moves to
separate the two in order to give the former priority. - Take, for example, ‘‘Je hais l’islam, entre autres... ,’’ by the psychoanalyst and author
Patrick Declerck on the Analyses et De ́bats page ofLe Monde, August 12, 2004. The article explodes
with rage against ‘‘Islam.’’ (All religions are collective neuroses, as Freud said, but Islam is absolutely
the worst.) The article considers itself to be presenting a daring and original view (one should
reclaim the right to hate, to identify the enemy publicly, and to express one’s hatred of him), but
in fact it is neither. Hatred of Islam (Muslims) is common—and is more commonly expressed in
actsthan in words. Of course, Declerck’s piece does not reflect the viewpoint ofLe Monde.My
point is not that the article should not have been published; it is simply that an argumentative
article written by a non-Jew with the title ‘‘I hate Judaism’’ would be inconceivable today in any
respectable daily. What does that indicate about the patterns of affect underlying the secular
Republic? - See, e.g., Jean Daniel, ‘‘Anti-se ́mitisme: La Ve ́rite ́en face,’’Le Nouvel Observateur, July
15–21, 2004. - See above, n. 25.
- Esther Benbassa, ‘‘Juifs de France, des sionistes sans sionisme,’’Le Monde, August 31, 2004.
- Benbassa points out that since the end of the 1950s, in the wake of the process of decoloni-
zation, most Jews from Morocco and Tunisia went to Israel, while Algerian Jews, having been
French citizens since 1870, went to the hexagon. She does not note, however, the new historiogra-
phy written by the latter about their assimilation into French culture since the latter part of the
nineteenth century. The Cre ́mieux Decree, which gave French citizenship to Algerian Jews, is re-
garded ambivalently as a moment in the imposition of metropolitan secular culture on the latter.
See Pierre Birnbaum, ed.,Histoire politique des Juifs de France entre universalisme et particularisme
(Paris: Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, 1990). - This is the subject of an interesting ethnography,The Architecture of Memory: A Jewish-
Muslim Household in Colonial Algeria, 1937–1962, by Joe ̈lle Bahloul, who reconstructs a vanished
domestic life as remembered by her relatives. According to this author, relations between Jews and
Muslims in Algeria were amicable. The former’s sense of fearfulness arises partly from the memory
of anti-Semitism directed at them by the Christian pieds-noirs—especially under the Vichy govern-
ment during the Second World War—and partly from the militant hostility of all Islamists, includ-
ing Algerian Islamists, toward Israel. - Muslims complain of bias on the part of the state in its response to incidents of racism.
Thus when a Jewish school was destroyed by arson, they say, government ministers were quick to
denounce anti-Semitism, even though police investigations had not yet arrived at a definite conclu-
sion about the crime. When two mosques were fire-bombed, statements from government sources
came only after much prodding (‘‘Les Responsables Musulmans de ́plorent le temps de re ́action des
politiques apre`s l’incendie de deux lieux de culte,’’Le Monde, March 8, 2004). In fact, throughout
France far more mosques have been deliberately set on fire or vandalized than synagogues, and
yet—so Muslims say—it is only the latter that are as a rule afforded police protection (see ‘‘France:
Land of Phobias,’’Middle East International, March 19, 2004). Even the Interior Ministry, Muslims
point out, finds it necessary to compile statistics on anti-Semitic incidents but not on Islamophobic
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