“Obviously we are afraid”: as the early legislative elections approach in France, Muslim voters are worried about a possible victory for the far right, of which they fear being the first victims.
For Sarah, 23, member of the collective of Muslim women “Khlass les clichés”, there is “a real risk” of seeing the National Rally (RN) win the legislative elections, with “Islamophobic laws” seeking to “restrict our individual freedoms”, in matters of worship or clothing for example.
The National Rally has not hidden its hostility to ritual slaughter in the past, which would effectively ban halal and kosher meat. In 2021, one of his proposed laws banned “Islamist ideologies” and prohibited the wearing of the veil in all public spaces.
The law currently prohibits it in public schools and prohibits the wearing of a full veil, such as a burqa, in public spaces.
France has one of the largest Muslim communities in Europe (around six million people of Muslim tradition or faith).
Sarah, who did not wish to give her name, like most of the people interviewed, is also worried about a “legitimation” of hostility to Muslims if, with “an openly racist party at the head of state , Islamophobic acts are increasing.”
Saturday evening in Lyon, around forty ultra-right people strolled through the streets shouting “we’re fucking Nazis” and “Islam outside Europe”, according to videos posted on social networks. The parade was condemned by the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Chems-eddine Hafiz, who called on the public authorities “to act immediately” in the face of “the release of extremist speech”.
” Scapegoats “
Mr. Hafiz had already castigated on June 11 “the worrying rise of the extreme right”, worrying to see that the “Maghrebian”, the “Muslim”, have “become the scapegoats, the symbols of everything that is perceived as threatening, as foreign, as incompatible with a supposedly homogeneous national identity.”
“In people’s minds, it’s confused now: immigration = Islam,” and “invasion of a population and a religion,” Bordeaux imam Tareq Oubrou told AFP.
In this development, many Muslims deplore the media treatment reserved for them, while France has been affected by a violent wave of attacks committed in the name of Islam since 2015.
“As soon as I turn on the TV, it’s dramatic, it’s Islam Islam Islam, we confuse it with Islamism, we put everyone in the same bag,” sighs in front of the Grand Mosque Maryam, 46, who judges that “it is more difficult today than fifteen years ago”.
This mother of two grown children also advised them to “study to be able to go elsewhere”, as echoed in a recent sociological survey, You love France but you are leaving itreflecting the discomfort of certain young Muslims tempted to leave France.
But the oldest also express their dismay at the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7.
Vote for the radical left
“Obviously we are afraid, not too much for religion, especially for everyday life,” admits Fatima, 70 years old.
Karim Tricoteaux, a 32-year-old Franco-Algerian, however, sees hope in the feeling that “the left-wing parties are forming alliances and are more powerful”. Of course, he will go to vote: “That will do it,” he promises.
In the European elections on June 9, Muslim voters who went to the polls voted 62% for the radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI), according to an Ifop poll for the newspaper The cross. But abstention reached 59% in this segment.
Religious leaders are therefore calling on people to vote, and not to lend credence to videos on social networks claiming that the Muslim religion advocates refusing to participate in democratic life.
“This is nonsense,” says Mr. Oubrou, castigating “ignorant people, who have a bac -10 level but try to talk about Muslim canon law.”
“The Muslim religion, on the contrary, advocates respect for the authority of the State in which we live,” assures Mr. Hafiz.