Europe and the Islamic World Seen Through “Reconquista”: Focusing on the Case of France

The purpose of this article is to examine Europe and the Islamic world through the concept of “reconquest”. Europe may represent the Christian world, and MENA may represent the Islamic world, and this article will focus on the relationship between Christianity-based France and Islam-based Algeria. The concept of “reconquest” that I use is not limited to the “territorial recovery” movement that took place in the medieval Iberian Peninsula from the 8th to the 15th centuries. This concept takes into account the harsh measures of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages, the forced conversion of conquered people through non-grant citizenship in modern Algeria, and the realization of assimilation as a result. As France “reconquered” Algeria, the ruins of Timgad and the example of Saint Augustine show that Algeria was a former Roman territory. In other words, as Algeria had been a Roman region in the past, it was argued that it should have fully accepted the rule of France, which was a descendant of Rome, a civilized and Christianized country. The possibility that modern France could be “colonized” by a majority of Muslims residing there is the argument of the Reconquête!, or Reconquest party, founded by Eric Zemmour. This far-right party argues that Muslims should either be assimilated into French society or “exiled” to prevent the country from being conquered by Muslims. In the 19th century, France conquered Algeria. However, nowadays many feel that France was “conquered” by Muslim immigrants, including Algerians. A growing number of people are arguing that this trend is not just between France and Algeria, but between Europe and the Islamic world.