The secular identity of French territory and the identities of Muslim migrants in France: the phenomenon of islamophobia

Abstract

The present work aims to investigate Islamophobia in France. Starting from the understanding of Islamophobia as "indiscriminate negative attitudes or emotions directed towards Islam or Muslims" (BLEICH, 2012), the phenomenon was examined through three elements: (i) French laws that (indirectly) restricted the use of the Islamic veil; (ii) the support of French public opinion for the aforementioned legislation; (iii) empirical data on Islamophobic acts. Methodologically, the French case study was used, and the data collection instruments were: (i) Bibliographic review of the specialized literature (including French surveys and opinion polls); (ii) Documentary research in the primary sources of laws and in official documents; (iii) Field research in France, which resulted in obtaining information and empirical data on the phenomenon, obtained from the two main databases on Islamophobia in France (CCIF and CNCDH). The research problem can be summarized in the question: “How is Islamophobia construct and how does it evolve in France?” As main results, it was found that Islamophobia in France develops from two interconnected axes: the association of Islam with terrorist violence; the connection of religion with female oppression, symbolized by the use of the veil. The finding of a correlation between large-scale terrorist acts and the rise of Islamophobia is evidence of the first axis. The finding that Islamic women wearing the veil represent the vast majority of victims of Islamophobia constitutes evidence of the second axis.