Eliott Mamane is a student and aspiring journalist.
For a few weeks, the entourage of Éric Zemmour likes to detect “Islamo-rightism” which would reign at Les Républicains.
The notion, which is understood to be symmetrical to Islamo-leftism, is to be questioned.
In November 2020 in
Le Point
, the academic behind the concept of Islamo-leftism tried to define what Islamo-rightism could be.
Admitting that the first term designated a
“socio-historical reality”,
Pierre-André Taguieff warned of the
“approximate”
nature of the second notion:
“what is in question are ideological-political couplings between movements located at the extreme right and Islamist currents.
Following the broadcast of the
Forbidden Zone
devoted to Islamism in certain French territories, the mayor of Roubaix, Guillaume Delbar, a former member of the Republicans, has been given the label of Islamo-rightist by certain media commentators.
He was notably reproached for his lack of alert in the face of an association subsidized by the municipality accused of Islamic proselytism.
Read also Presidential 2022: the Pécresse camp will file a complaint against the “extreme right” methods of the “Zemmour galaxy”
In recent days, the support of Éric Zemmour, Damien Rieu has denounced some relatives of the Republican presidential candidate for their complacency with Islamism.
After promising in January
“revelations on the Islamo-rightism of Valérie Pécresse and her entourage”
on his Twitter account, he notably targeted the vice-president of the Île-de-France region, Patrick Karam.
This one would have sympathized a few years ago with the secretary general of the Union of Muslim associations of Seine-Saint-Denis who, subsequently, contributed to the cabal on social networks against Samuel Paty the days preceding his assassination. .
If other elected LRs were appointed, the point here is to focus more on the proposed analysis than
[Islamo-leftism] qualifies above all an ideological renewal which replaces in socialist discourse the proletarian electorate by that of a part of immigration...
Elliott Mamane
Is it relevant to speak of Islamo-rightism?
If the term seems as powerful as a presidential campaign requires, it tends to undermine the scientific legitimacy acquired by the notion of Islamo-leftism.
The latter, sometimes misinterpreted in the media, qualifies above all an ideological renewal which replaces in the socialist speeches the proletarian electorate by that of a part of the immigration (with an analogous reading of the resulting world).
Thus, contrary to what is often put forward, the term does not designate the clientelism of certain political leaders with the representatives of Islamism in the neighborhoods where such collusion seems advantageous to them.
In short, we must distinguish between the ideological component and the electoral ruse.
Not out of pedantry, but to anticipate academic opposition using the lack of clarity in the use of these terms to disqualify them.
Following an interview granted by Jean-Michel Blanquer to the
JDD
in October 2020 to counter Islamo-leftism in higher education, the researcher Samuel Hayat split a forum in
L'Obs
denouncing the concept .
It would only be a
"scarecrow"
to
"stigmatize Muslims"
, allowing
"people who use it to amalgamate into a coherent whole a series of very diverse attitudes and positions"
:
"It would be easy, faced with this porridge, to respond with contempt, not only for the minister's lack of intellectual rigor, but also for the very term of Islamo-leftism, of which this interview shows the vacuity."
In reality, there is an Islamo-laxism, which can occur on the right as well as on the left.
This Islamo-laxism takes the form both of more or less complacent discourse with the excesses of the practice of Islam in France and of the distribution of subsidies without sufficient vigilance.
Elliott Mamane
If we must not therefore confuse a part of the secular left which, out of pure electoralism, can show evidence of clientelism with dubious associations on the eve of appointments at the polls with an authentically Islamo-leftist left, an identical rigor should be summoned before imposing the notion of Islamo-rightism.
In reality, there is an Islamo-laxism, which can occur on the right as well as on the left.
This Islamo-laxism takes the form both of more or less complacent discourse with the excesses of the practice of Islam in France and of the distribution of subsidies without sufficient vigilance.
But referring to Islamo-leftism to define liberals makes no sense.
By transforming this highly relevant ideological description into a simple electoral analysis tool,
its accuracy is lost.
Conservatives have understood the rhetorical weakness of the deceptively bombastic anathemas that progressives use to label their opponents;
It's up to them not to make the same mistake.
