NOTES TO PAGES 509–10
- Vincent Geisser,La Nouvelle Islamophobie(Paris: La De ́couverte, 2003), 15.
- Daniel Lindenberg,Le Rappel a`l’ordre: Enqueˆte sur les nouveaux re ́actionnaires(Paris: Seuil,
2002).
- ‘‘Many journalists and intellectuals consider the distinction between religion and politics
in this case to be specious, and give one to understand that Islam (and Muslims) ought to be
subjected to surveillance. The Catholics, like Alain Besanc ̧on and Pierre Manent, who have long
been hostile to ‘dialogue’ with the Prophet’s Faithful, find in this an excellent occasion for settling
accounts with what they consider to be the errors and strayings of the post-Conciliar Church, and
thus approach sections of the population who are most hostile to modernity.... What is new is
that these thinkers are now followed not only by other, publicly Catholic individuals, but also by
unbelievers unhappy with the idea—even before the World Trade Center attack—that Catholicism
should be the only religion to be openly attacked with impunity’’ (ibid., 38).
- ‘‘Les menaces a
la laı ̈cite ́vont de pair avec un regain de violence al’e ́gard de personnes
appartenant ou cense ́es appartenir ala communaute ́juive [The threats to secularism go together with a rise in violence toward persons belonging to or supposed to belong to the Jewish commu- nity].’’ The report then adds in strong terms: ‘‘Toute injure, toute action, toute violence acaractere antise ́mite est re ́pre ́hensible et doit eˆtre punie se ́verement, conforme ́ment a`la lois. [All injury, every
act of violence having an anti-Semitic character is reprehensible and must be punished severely in
accordance with the law]’’ (Laı ̈cite ́et Re ́publique, 105).
- ‘‘Re ́my Schwartz, theconseiller d’e ́tatwho in effect ran Stasi’s commission and oversaw its
hearings, told me about the first veil hearings, in 1989. ‘There was one common thread,’ he said.
‘We were there to judge law, not souls. But this time I was reinforced in my conviction that a new
law was necessary. The older laws were not applicable to the situation now. What we have now is
part of a global politics of anti-Semitism, and it had to be limited.’ Schwartz reminded me that in
six years the majority of citizens in Holland’s four biggest cities will be Muslim’’ (Jane Kramer,
‘‘Taking the Veil,’’The New Yorker, November 22, 2004, 70–71).
- Some young men interviewed in Angouleme angrily claimed that ‘‘Having a political lobby
that represents the interests of a particular community is perfectly acceptable for some; for others,
the very idea of a community is forbidden.’’ (In France, unlike the United States, the mere sugges-
tion that Jews ‘‘have a political lobby’’ is heard with alarm by liberals because it is typically part of
right-wing rhetoric.) It is the journalists—so these young men insisted—who, on the one hand,
repeatedly describe a youth as ‘‘North African’’ or ‘‘Arab’’ (especially when he is in trouble) and,
on the other hand, express outrage at the identification of an intellectual as a Jew. (The reference
here is to the scandal caused by Tariq Ramadan, a well-known Swiss professor and activist, when
he identified certain French public intellectuals as Jews.) See Phillippe Bernard, ‘‘On nous qualifie
sans cesse d’ ‘Arabes’ et on pre ́tend nous empeˆcher de nous situer par rapport a`l’Islam,’’Le Monde,
July 5, 2004.
- Complaints about increasing anti-Semitism in France relate largely to such things as dese-
cration of Jewish graves, damage to synagogues and other property, and insults to Jewish children
wearing kippas in school playgrounds and in the streets. Although such acts are highly offensive
and disturbing, it is necessary to bear in mind that they can be perpetrated by a handful of hood-
lums. There is still, to my knowledge, no comprehensive study of anti-Semitism as institutional
discrimination—i.e., as the systematic prejudice promoting social, economic, and political exclu-
sions and inequalities—something for which there is ample evidence relating to people of African
and Arab origin. The assimilation of Jews into French society appears to be well advanced, despite
social prejudice in some quarters against them. France has had several Jewish prime ministers since
the Second World War—a record unmatched by any other liberal democracy. One wonders whether
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