Sociologies (Feb 2015)
La peur de l’Islam
Abstract
This articles surveys the economic and sociopolitical context of the rise of Islamophobic prejudices, primarily in Europe. Beginning with the reaffirmation of the Liberal ideology after 1945, which sought to protect the rights of national, ethnic, and racial minorities, the author identifies some of the factors that have lead to a reaction of the majorities and the strengthening of ethnocentrism. These factors include a resistance to cultural pluralism (which irremediably transforms the majority society), and the loss of social status by the middle-class resulting from economic globalization. The author also identifies some of the reasons why Muslims constitute a preferred target of such animosity on the part of the majorities: the demographic importance of this minority; their limited ability to organize and mobilize; the fear of political Islamism since the Iranian Revolution of 1979; the end of the repressive control of internal tensions in regions dependent on the Soviet Union since its fall in 1989; lastly, Western interests in the energy resources of the Middle East. The author then identifies some modern beliefs which are challenged by the presence of Islam, thus fostering Islamophobia: the paradigm of rationalism, according to which religion would be an intellectual archaism that cannot subsist in a modern society; the paradigm of inevitable secularization, challenged by the persistence of religious belief; the notion of a necessary opposition between the State and religion; the conception of a threat on popular sovereignty by the judiciary (since it protects minorities); lastly, the perception of Islam and of religions in general as intrinsically oppressive towards women.
