Lop-sided Laws: French Muslims and Laïcité

Abstract After dozens of attacks during the past ten years in which hundreds have been killed by French jihadists, it is often suggested that subversive attitudes towards the Republic and its code of laïcité are widespread among Muslims in France. Yet while Muslims are often at odds with recent laws that they consider to be unfairly targeted against them, those interviewed in opinion surveys express high levels of support for the code of laïcité as laid down in the law of 1905, which separated the state and its representatives from religious institutions while simultaneously safeguarding the right of members of civil society to express their religious beliefs not only privately but also in the public sphere. Very few Muslim girls were exercising their right to wear headscarves in state schools when these were banned in 2004, and very few women were wearing burkas until these in turn were banned in any public space in 2010. But these new laws have been perceived as Islamophobic not only by the tiny minorities who were wearing these garments but also by many other Muslims, in whose eyes these measures parallel other long-standing patterns of discrimination hindering their access to jobs, housing and other social goods.