French anti-racist activism linked antisemitism to Islamophobia beneath surface divisions

Evidence

Thus, while antisemitism and Islamophobia have both been realities in modern France, so have struggles against them. Moreover, those struggles do not have to be considered as zero-sum games. Rather, at their best, they have gone together. Broadly this study supports Hargreaves’ contention that, recent narrow factionalism notwithstanding, ethnic separatism is weak in France. A strong universalist thread runs through the histories of many of the movements considered here. In particular, there is a strong emphasis within many of these histories on altruism, rather than self-­interested identity politics. While it is easy to criticise this universalist approach as paternalistic and, as we have seen, often open to political manipulation, we might also ask: Is there not something admirable in its refusal to see the world in ethnic categories? What, in short, is wrong with altruism? — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1400 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

I maintain the distinction between Islamophobia and anti–Muslim racism also to name forms of prejudice that are lodged against Islam as a religion rather than against Muslims as a people, although the two are often entangled. — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 902 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Those nearer pole one are primarily concerned with racism against colonial and post-colonial migrants. Because of the legacy of the Algerian war of independence, the most violent episode in the history of European decolonisation, this has the heaviest impacts on Arabs and Muslims. Islamophobia is therefore a central and pressing concern for those near pole one, although the term only came into wide use in France recently, and remains very controversial. Those nearer pole two are primarily concerned with antisemitism, which, mirroring concern about Islamophobia, also has deep resonance in France because of the legacies of the Dreyfus Affair and Vichy France’s collaboration with the Nazis. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1329 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Fixing on antisemitism as the sole admissible racism blinds France to other institutional bias — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 960; The Islamophobia network framed a conspiratorial alliance between Islamists and the Left; French antisemitism and Islamophobia share a longer tradition of xenophobia aimed at multiple groups — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 1334 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• French antiracist struggles against antisemitism and Islamophobia have often advanced together, not as rivals. #corroborates (0.95) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1400
• Antisemitism and Islamophobia share tropes but remain structurally distinct racisms #complicates (0.85) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 902
• French antisemitism and Islamophobia concerns each rest on distinct historical traumas #complicates (0.82) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1329
• French anti-racist groups dispute whether Islamophobia deserves recognition as racism #complicates (0.76)