It’s been two weeks since the celebration of Bastille Day, or the French National Day, and this year was particularly marked by PM Narendra Modi being invited as the Guest of Honor for the celebrations. But this did little to quell the deeply rooted cultural wars brewing around France, with the worrying rise in Islamophobia also threatening to implode over. The uptick in public dissent isn’t recent and instead has been systematically on the rise since the early 1980s, with its repercussions being felt exponentially in the past couple of years. In this article, let’s delve into the Herculean hurdles France faces that promote cultural wars and, more importantly, Islamophobia.
FRANCE AIN’T TOO HIP FOR THE WOKE CULTURE
“When America sneezes, Europe catches a cold.”
This quote aptly summarizes the dilemma that France finds itself in, where it fears having caught onto the American woke culture that symbolizes being educated and aware of racial and social prejudice occurring around them. The entire concept of wokisme is quite paradoxical in France. It doesn’t entirely do justice to introduce wokisme in a country with an excellent track record of maintaining universal values and no perceived discrimination based on ethnicity, skin color, or even religion but focusing solely on the merits and potential of the individual and, by extension, the communities. Wokisme would make sense in the US, which has had its rough patches with racial discrimination. Hence, adopting and enforcing the culture from America to France will be counterproductive and further divide the diverse community, even leading to civil wars in a worst-case scenario. After all, when taken to extremes, any ideology only serves contrary to what it was initially intended for. On the other hand, anti-wokisme would only help to hinder progressive ideals such as representation for marginalized communities and equality for all races, oblivious to skin color or religion.
Another cause for dissent towards wokisme is that it presents grounds for a prelude to Islam and terror in Europe. There is a new term coined, “Islamo-gauchisme” (literally, Islamo-leftist), that former presidential candidate Marc Le Penn used to describe the alliance between Islamic fanatics and the French left. Though this has been wholly disregarded, one cannot help but think about how this might be in the works: the leftists utilize and promote the Muslim parties to showcase their ideals of equality, freedom, fraternity, progress, and, most importantly, reform. The Muslim parties use this opportunity under the pretenses of opposing racism and religious discrimination to amass a steady stream of followers and well-wishers. It’s nothing short of brilliance: this textbook symbiosis is a marvel to ponder.
So, all in all, the French are trying to unsuccessfully oust the woke culture, with President Macron also calling it out on more than one occasion and speaking against adopting the social ideas of their American counterparts. He even inaugurated a think tank to combat woke culture in French universities.
It raises doubts if wokisme can be taken with a pinch of salt, being the necessary evil it is, or if it will be outright rejected for being another “American fad.”
FRANCE BALANCES ON A TIGHTROPE IN ITS RELATIONS WITH GCC COUNTRIES
The world woke up in late October to the outcries of several GCC countries demanding the boycott of French products, especially food products. The reason for this involved showcasing a depiction of satirical cartoons of The Prophet Muhammed PBUH by a teacher Samuel Paty in a class on free speech. The teacher was subsequently beheaded, and in response, Macron condemned the violent acts and spoke against Islamist radicals. He passionately advocated for free speech and universal values while vowing never to give up cartoons depicting the Prophet. He even awarded the teacher posthumously La Légion d’honneur, France’s highest civilian honor.
This act strained the French’s GCC relations and caused a considerable trade loss, with their existing products being sold at half-price and at ridiculous offers to exhaust French products and then ban them. Even though France currently appears to be on good terms with most of the GCC countries, as evidenced by the signing of various trade agreements and defense deals, the pain caused is still fresh in the minds of many.
The above chain of events must serve as an eye-opener. France must ensure that secularism, equality, republicanism, and, most importantly, neutrality as a country must be maintained for the greater good.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE FRENCH?
We’ve constantly heard the motto, “liberté, égalité, fraternité” translating to liberty, equality, and fraternity.
It encapsulates some of the universal values that the French pride themselves on and strive to live by; by not discriminating based on color, ethnicity, or religion. It’s more of a source of identity for them than a motto. But this motto’s foundation seems to be tested lately as Macron has posed the all-important question, citing mass immigration and cultural insecurities.
Though these concerns are warranted with far-right ideologies like the French people being overtaken in sheer numbers by immigrants, it still betrays the far-left ideologies of equality and progress, along with the universal values that they live by. Allying with different identities will cause further division, contrary to the essence of being French which is an umbrella cause for unity in diversity.
Identity politics should and must never occur in France. President Macron has opposed this, yet one cannot ignore the irony in his question; it’s almost as if he’s enforcing it in a roundabout way. On the contrary, an observation that can be made is that political organization around identity rather than centering it around an ideology is the leading cause of civil strife.
Keeping in this mind, trying to play identity politics rather than focusing on other pressing issues such as racial, religious, or even social discrimination can result in an eventual catastrophe in the foreseeable future and is one that France must work to avoid actively.
The turpitude of the political and social conundrum in France further continues..
Written by Adrian Rex Coutinho for MTTN
Edited by Siddhant Tomar for MTTN
Featured Image by Ben Hickey
Images by Eric Chow, Matt Chase and Monica Hanonu
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