According to its president Mario Stasi, the key is in secularism which allows us to overcome questions of identity.
The president of the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra), Mario Stasi, calls on Monday, November 13 to “a truly great plan to combat racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination” the day after the march in support of the Jewish community in France. “It’s very good to demonstrate,” but “what matters is what we are going to put in motion now to intensify all the training and education work”, he explained. According to him, the “secularism” East “a ground of mutual understanding which allows a harmonious life of respect” and to overcome questions of identity. In the morning, the President of the Republic received the various leaders of religion in France at the Élysée. “Anti-Semitism will not pass through mosques”, declared the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris after meeting Emmanuel Macron.
franceinfo: Do you welcome the meeting between Emmanuel Macron and those responsible for religion?
Mario Stasi: It was essential to bring together religious leaders after this march against anti-Semitism and for the Republic. We must not forget that the fight against anti-Semitism goes far beyond the religious framework and that it is the business of all citizens, whether believers or non-believers. It’s a Republican affair.
Should we broaden the fight against anti-Semitism to the fight against racism to bring people together more broadly?
What matters at Licra is the next moment and the next moment is the months and years after that. It’s very good to demonstrate. It is very important, in particular to show national solidarity in support of the Jewish community, but what matters is what we are going to put in motion now to intensify all the work of training, education. But not simply a work of questioning and essential sanction, not simply of regulation of social networks, essential, of interventions in high schools, in middle schools, in primary schools, in amateur sport, in the world of culture , in the urban fabric. We must put in place a real major plan to combat racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination, make it a national priority, put in place the financial resources, the human resources and a real framework, a real program.
How to avoid the risk of victim competition?
It’s victim competition and it’s the withdrawal of identity. We must rediscover a collective momentum, a republican momentum, a civic momentum, while equitably recognizing diversity. How to recognize identity and overcome this identity? There is a ground for mutual understanding which allows a harmonious life of respect, a ground for public expression which is the one which founded the Republic, it is secularism. We must come together around the values of secularism while having, in our privacy, in the private domain, the right to think what we want to believe or not believe, to blaspheme or not to blaspheme. There is the order of the intimate and the order of public impression.
“How can we avoid victimized competition? By finding common ground called secularism around the values of the Republic.”
Mario Stasi, president of Licraat franceinfo
This is taught in middle school classes, primary schools or high school. This is what we do at Licra and this is what we need to do exponentially. Teach what is secularism, racism, anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, genocides, the Shoah and other genocides. Propaganda feeds on ignorance. I notice that very often racists and anti-Semites are first and foremost ignorant people. It is often out of ignorance, sometimes obviously with an intention to harm, but often out of crass ignorance. We must attack the root and we must put all the effort into training and education.