CC BY
58
Svetlana Orlova ISLAMIZATION OF FRANCE: PHOBIA OR A REAL THREAT?*
The article considers the Islamic influence on the French society. It analyses in detail the conditions created for the Arabic migrants in France and the problems connected with radical moods of some Muslim youth.
Key words: France, Islam, migration, Maghreb, islamization
The Islamic factor has been playing a crucial role in global socio-political processes for many years. Of all Western Europe states France is a country where Muslims were the most widely spread, and this, undoubtedly, has significantly influenced French people's lives.
The current French law on the Protection of Individuals prohibiting to ask about people's ethnic roots and religious affiliations, does not let us speak about the number of the Muslims who live in France. According to different sources it varies from 3 to 6 million people, while the total French population is about 66 million. Their number will be only growing, considering new flows of migrants and a high level of birth rate in Muslim families on the one hand and the European demographic crisis on the other [1].
The majority of French migrants come from Maghreb countries. All this started in the second half of the 20th century, when France experienced the shortage of work force as a consequence of a low birth rate. This was one of the reasons for the friendly migration policy and the engagement of labour force from French colonies' inhabitants. The biggest wave of emigrants took place in 1960, when the former colonies gained independence. At first they were almost free to enter France. By 1970 in the country there were 600 thousand of Algerians, 90 thousand of Tunisians along with the migrants from Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania. After that the process of family reunions started, which increased a flow of migrants. Until now a considerable number of Muslims still comes to France for family reasons, so it creates unrelenting pressure on the social system. The officials' attempts to keep an influx of migrants down have turned out to be futile [2].
The first misunderstandings between the Islamic migrants and the French officials arose because of the assimilation policy, which resists any social differentiation by the culture and language principle. This means that the migrant is supposed to abandon his identity and adopt the values and standards of behaviour accepted
* Research supervisor: I.I. Arsentyeva, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor of Department of International Relations and Russian Foreign Policy. Language instructor: R.M. Bazyleva, Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor of Department of English Language for Humanities.
at the new home. For Muslims, however, assimilation is a kind of religion rejection. First migrants did not pay much attention to it, as they hoped to return to their birthplaces. But for the next generations of migrants, who connected their lives with the new home for good and all, the question how to integrate in the French community and what sacrifices they would have to make arose acutely [3].
From 1980, taking into consideration specific North African mentality, France switched from the assimilation policy to attempts to integrate the Muslims in the French society. However, this policy also implies that the French laws dominate the norms of the national and cultural environment, where the immigrant comes from. For instance, there exists a law, which prohibited wearing the burqa in public places, for violation of which a fine follows. It is implemented within the laicism movement that assumes not only a complete separation of religion from the state, but also fighting against any religious displays in the society [4].
Nowadays about 95 % of the French Muslims do not show their religious affiliations in public places. But there exist other 5 % that reject the European values and strive to live by the law of sharia. Among them a radical Islamic group is distinguished, which represents a serious menace for present-day France. It is they who are mostly subjected to recruitment by large terror organizations. Only within the last year in France 2 serious terrorist attacks occurred. The beginning of 2015 was marked by the attack on the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, organized by Kuashi brothers, and on 13November that year in Paris and its suburbs a spate of attacks took place, the casualties' number of which is the largest in the history of France. Other European states are also exposed to extreme danger. On 22 March 2016 tremendous explosions shook the Brussels airport and the Metro, for which the terror organization ISIS took the responsibility as well as for the attacks in Paris [5].
For France the migrant's unrest has turned into an everyday occurrence, in which the life conditions and the French community's attitude to foreigners play not the last role. Those, who have moved to Europe, represented the poorest part of their society members. A social gap between the French and the migrants still exists. Life conditions of the majority of the French Muslims can be hardly classified as satisfactory. Even those, who manage to graduate, encounter a lot of obstacles, connected with racial prejudice, while trying to apply for a job. Yet the French themselves believe that immigrants do not get down to work willingly, counting on the unemployment benefits. Anyway a vast number of unemployed Muslims and the French ghetto appalling conditions end up in an increase in crime. The majority of prisoners in French jails are foreigners and the French of a foreign origin. The youth of migrants' neighbourhoods are left to themselves. Young people sometimes make their living using any possible ways up to robbery and drug dealing.
All this along with the fear of the European society Islamization causes the French people's negative attitude towards the Muslims. At times it is expressed not only by annoyance, but also by dint of a brute force. Violence and bullying towards immigrants and members of their families occur on a regular basis [6].
The police cruel treatment towards young people of North African origin has been repeatedly recorded, and this has not been censured by any politicians such as the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, known by his flush statements against Muslims settling, or Marine Le Pen, the National Front leader, who called the Muslims' public praying "the occupation of French soil". All this makes the Islamic youth arrange mass protests. These people are not representatives of radical groups. They just struggle for equal life conditions with the native Frenchmen, that is, by the ways, guaranteed by the law [7].
It is difficult to say who is right who is wrong: the Muslim migrants, who have destabilized the French community according to the latter, or the French, who has whipped up tension because of the Islamization threat. Speaking of a probable Islamization it is important to point out that according to the German researchers' inquiry rates of an increase of those, who theoretically belong to the Muslim confession, are generally comparable to an average number of changes in population of the country. Who knows, perhaps nowadays the Islamization myth serves only as a populist measure. Anyway, influence of the Islamic factor on present-day France is enormous. Whether the French government will be able to solve the conflict, originated from the Islamic factor, and save the country from new shocks or not, only time will show.
Bibliography
1. Novozhenova I.S. France - Islam in a Secular State // Actual Problems of Europe. - 2008. - № 1. - P. 131.
2. Trofimova O.E. The Attacks in France: a Clash of Civilizations or Disadvantages of Assimilation Model? // Imemo.ru. - 13.01.2015. - URL: http://www.imemo.ru/index.php?page_id=502&id=1460&printmode
3. Sapego G.P. Immigrants in Western Europe // World Economy and International Relations. - 2006. - № 9. - P. 50-58.
4. Why are French Muslims under Constant Pressure from the Authorities? // Islam Today. - 12.02.2015. - URL: http://islam-today.ru/islam_v_mire/ostalnoj-mir/pocemu-musulmane-vo-francii-ispytyvaut-postoannoe-davlenie-so-storony-vlastej/
5. Morozov D.Yu. North African Immigration to France // Social Anthropology. - URL: http://www.social-anthropology.ru/node/168
6. Hassan G. French Ghettos, Police Violence and Racism // Global Research. - 08.11.2005. - URL: http://www.globalresearch.ca/french-ghettos-police-violence-and-racism/1214
7. Liozhe R. The Myth of Islamization // Russia in Global Affairs. -30.05.2013. - URL: http://www.globalaffairs.ru/number/Mif-ob-islamizatcii-16006
Briefly about the author
Orlova Svetlana Yurevna - student of Institute of History and International Relations, Saratov State University. E-mail: [email protected]
