French colonial justice policy tried to stop Islam’s spread by grouping Africans by ethnicity

Evidence

The French term “Islamophobie” first appeared in print in a 1910 book entitled La Politique Musalmane dans l’Afrique Occidentale Francoise. In that book, the author criticized the anti-Muslim views of France’s colonial administrators working in former Muslim-majority colonies such as Benin, The Gambia, and Senegal in western Africa. “Islamophobie” was also used in a biography on the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that was completed in 1916 by another Frenchman named Alphonse Etienne Dinet. The author dedicated his book to the brave Muslim soldiers in the French army who died in battle during World War I. — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 484 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Colonial segregation suppressed even private political talk between settlers and Muslims; France eradicated African languages, slavery, customary law, and chieftaincies to spread republicanism.; From 1912 French colonial policy shifted toward preserving African Islamic institutions. (+6 more)

Related

• Islamophobia began as colonial administrators’ anti-Muslim views across French west Africa (similarity 0.89)
• French Islamophobia is shaped by Islamic conquest history resting at the present’s doorstep. (similarity 0.85)
• French Muslim presence traces to Algeria’s 1830-1962 colonial conquest (similarity 0.83)
• Fear of extremist propaganda drove colonial surveillance expansion in French West Africa (similarity 0.81)
• From 1912 French colonial policy shifted toward preserving African Islamic institutions. (similarity 0.79)
• France feared a shift from Arabisation to Islamisation of minorities (similarity 0.79)
• Colonial assimilation policy aimed to remake Africans into black-skinned Frenchmen (similarity 0.78)
• European colonial racial practice of differentiating Islam preceded and enabled modern Islamophobia (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• French race policy required ruling each African ethnic group by its own chiefs #corroborates (0.80)
• Islamophobia began as colonial administrators’ anti-Muslim views across French west Africa #expands (0.60) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 484
• Europeans first encountered Africans chiefly as Muslim soldiers, fusing racial and religious identity #corroborates (0.60)