Gilles Clavreul is co-founder of Printemps republican and general delegate of the L'Aurore think tank. He was interministerial delegate for the fight against racism and anti-Semitism from 2015 to 2017
.
A survey alone cannot answer such a broad question.
But the one that
Le droit de vivre
, the historical review of the Licra, publishes on high school students and secularism, rich in lessons, cannot fail to alert.
First, it confirms findings made in other surveys, including in-depth scientific work such as La temptation radicale by Anne Muxel and Olivier Galland, or Adolescents and the law, a remarkable field survey led by Sébastian Roché among of middle school students from Bouches-du-Rhône (2016).
What does the poll say?
That adolescents are less attached to freedom of expression than their elders, or at least that they are more willing to balance it with respect for convictions, especially religious ones.
Youth sociologists have noted it for a while: this generation first of all aspires to "respect".
This results in a conception of secularism that is noticeably out of step with our legal corpus, since a majority of high school students would thus be in favor, not only of wearing religious symbols at school (52% against 25% of the French) but also for all public officials (49% against 21%).
It is not surprising that a relative majority of high school students find secularism
“discriminatory”
(43%) against at least one religion, and that a significant minority (38%) consider it
“outdated”
.
These results are not surprising.
High school students are in tune with an air of the times that values identities and does not conceive of the exercise of freedom unless it hurts them.
Will they, adults, have the same outlook on things?
It would be premature to say so.
No hasty judgment, therefore, but the repeated observation of a gap between the generations, which is somewhat reminiscent of that observed in the 1980s, when a so-called “moral” generation succeeded generation 68. Contrary to one idea received, the "young" are not systematically more liberal than the elders: it all depends on the mood and the gravity of the weather, and ours are not very laughing ...
Contrary to popular belief, "young people" are not systematically more liberal than elders
Gilles Clavreul
What is certain, on the other hand, is that the fable of a youth massively acquired by secular ideals thanks to the educational efforts made to his attention is definitely shattered.
No doubt the public policies of secular education were neither ambitious enough nor massive enough to thwart profound changes in mentalities and representations.
But we must also ask ourselves the question of content: what exactly have we put under the banner of secularism over the past decade?
An often very theoretical corpus, difficult for young people to understand;
but also a fairly watered-down vision, favoring the “inter-convictional” dimension, a concept quite foreign to the principle of secularism.
Under these conditions, it should come as no surprise that high school students can simultaneously declare themselves attached to secularism, wish it to be taught more, and wish to radically modify its principles ...
The other major lesson of the survey, which is another confirmation, poses an otherwise thorny problem: the gulf that separates the attitudes of Muslim high school students from all of their comrades.
The vast majority of them therefore support the wearing of religious symbols at school (88%), by public officials (85%) or even the wearing of the burkini (76%) and separate hours for women at school. the swimming pool (80%);
this is twice as much as all high school students.
They are still 54% to judge secularism
"outdated"
and 48% to believe that
"Samuel Paty was wrong"
to show cartoons in class, against 26% who agree and 26% who do not comment.
In the lives of most young Muslims, religion occupies a central place, while it is not or no longer in the vast majority of young people in general.
In the lives of most young Muslims, religion is central
Gilles Clavreul
Here again, these results will not surprise, if not by their magnitude, those who have looked without blinkers on the subject: in Sébastian Roché's survey, covering a large sample (9,000) of college students, young Muslims stand out clearly. others by a much stronger relationship to religion, but also by a more uncompromising conception of it.
Religion is thus considered
"very important"
by 62% of them, against only 6% of Catholics and 22% of
"other believers"
.
Likewise, 85% believe that only one interpretation of the sacred book is possible, against 32% of Catholics;
68% share the idea that it is necessary to follow the law of religion rather than the civil law which would clash with religious law, against 34% of Catholics and 47% of other believers.
Finally, 49%
“completely”
share
the idea that religious principles must be applied scrupulously.
Catholics are only 9% to answer in the same way, like 20% of the other believers.
The investigators even show, at the end of a finer categorization isolating the
"confirmed believers"
, that the very observant Muslims show more intransigence than the Catholics very anchored in the faith.
For example, 53% of "assertive" Muslims believe that books or films that attack religion should be banned.
Only 32% of "confirmed" Catholics respond in the same way, barely a little less than "cultural" Muslims, that is to say not very observant (38%).
Same differences in tolerance towards homosexuality: homosexuals are people like others for 69% of atheists, 56% of “confirmed” Catholics, 55% of “cultural” Muslims and other believers, and only 31% of Muslims "Affirmed".
In other words, the relationship of young Muslims to their faith is incomparably stronger than that of other believers, especially within a nucleus, minority but significant, which shows a certain rigidity in terms of mores.
“Cultural Muslims, on the other hand, have moral attitudes closer to the general norm.
We find completely identical findings in the study by the Institut Montaigne in 2016.
For the public authorities, and even more so for those responsible for explaining and sustaining secularism, we must be careful not to conceal or water down these observations, but also to dramatize them.
First of all, we can see it clearly, if nothing looks more like a rigid believer than another rigid believer, times have changed and the "traditional cathos", besides being very few now, are no longer even. as hostile as before to the evolution of manners.
We can certainly say "that in general" all fundamentalists are equal, but in practice, henceforth, the statistically significant group which stands out for its "authoritarianism", to use the term of the Montaigne note, is indeed this strong minority. observant of young Muslims.
These results will not surprise, if not by their magnitude, those who have looked at the subject without a blinker.
Gilles Clavreul
Therefore, let us have the courage to burst the abscess, in the interests of children.
Even if public institutions and schools in particular cannot on their own reverse what children learn firstly in their social, family and friendly environment, but also increasingly via screens, it is nevertheless up to them to take this element into account lucidly, without pretending to believe that we can teach secularism - but also the fight against racist, sexist and homophobic prejudices, the history of evolution, sex education ... - in the same conditions in a high school in the northern districts of Marseille and in an establishment in the city center of Aix.
Reflecting social and territorial fractures, which have themselves become socio-religious fractures, the school map obliges teachers to very strongly adapt their pedagogy to the classes in which they teach, especially on these subjects.
We do not hesitate to consider that it is necessary to devote more time to learning fundamental disciplines with students in REP / REP +?
Well, in the same way, a much more demanding educational effort is needed, in certain territories and with certain students, to make secularism and the values of the Republic known, and not to be satisfied, as we have too much tendency to do so, with a very general and somewhat emollient discourse on living together.
Let us anticipate the criticisms which will not fail to fall on this iconoclastic proposition: what?
A specific program to assimilate (digestive metaphor) secularism to Muslim children!
Neo-colonialism!
Not at all, and on the contrary: it means giving more, explaining more, to provide more tools, while preserving the free will and freedom of conscience of children.
To teach is not to constrain, to educate is not to empower and to learn is not to submit: it is perhaps a little absurd to have to remind, but since we have a real challenge today, to both educational and social - I insist: social, and not cultural, nor religious - it is useful to rehash some somewhat forgotten evidence.
Otherwise, for moral comfort, part of the French youth will be allowed to grow up in a society whose standards they will not like, failing to really understand them.
We must be careful not to obscure or water down these observations, but also to dramatize them.
Gilles Clavreul
Moreover, what is valid for young Muslims remains largely valid for young people as a whole: a vast republican pedagogical enterprise remains to be undertaken in its direction, which supposes, before training young people, to properly train adults, teachers. and educational actors.
As some say, it cannot only be based on speeches and also requires resources and voluntarism to break the logic of ghettoization.
But it first requires a new state of mind and a strong political ambition.
Young people are far from having abandoned secularism;
let's say that they took a little field, as if they had instinctively understood that it was us, the adults, who lacked conviction.