The present lecture, given by the activist Yasser Louati, under the name of “France as the laboratory of Islamophobia. Muslims as the barometer of democracy in the West” develops the idea of “Islamodiversion” and its use in France.
Islamodiversion refers to the use of Muslims as scapegoats, to divert the attention from other problems the country is experiencing.
Thus, Yasser Louati points out several situations in which the French government has targeted the Muslim population, under different veil or identity controversies, when facing a problem, as it happened during the pension reform’s protests of 2003, the economic crisis in 2009, the pension reform of 2010, or with the terrorist attacks that have hit the country for the last two years.
Currently, several NGOs, such as the French Human Rights League, Amnesty International, or Human Rights Watch, have denounced the targeting and persecution of Muslims in the raids and arrests carried out by the security forces.
However, as Yasser Louati points out, Islamophobia is not only a problem for Muslim, it affects the population as a whole, and its impact has economic, social and political repercussions.
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