Islamic Scholar Rachid Benzine Addresses Muslim Integration and Radicalization in France

Islam in France, Islamophobia, radicalization... Rachid Benzine addressed these issues in an interview he gave to the monthly magazine BAB, published by MAP. According to the lecturer at the Institute of Political Studies in Aix-en-Provence and the Faculty of Theology in Paris, unemployment truly affects immigrants, particularly Arab-Muslims in France.

The worst, he will say, is that "ordinary Muslims" are considered terrorists like those Muslims belonging to Islamist sects and others who strike around the world. According to the academic’s explanations, this view of society provokes a feeling of "Islamo-anxiety" among their native French citizens. As a result, this gives rise to an explosive cocktail: hatred, Islamophobia and amalgamation.

In an op-ed published in the columns of the newspaper Le Monde, he remembers having reacted to the remarks of the French president, Emmanuel Macron. The latter had called on the French to "stand united" against the "blows of an Islam that carries death." Rachid Benzine said he described these remarks as "Islamophobic McCarthyism."

From the conclusion of the academic, it appears that the responsibility for the rejection of Islam in France is shared. He notes that Eric Zemmour and Alain Finkielkrault are hardening their discourse against Islam without knowing the religion. Unfortunately, some people claiming to be Muslim also bathe in ignorance and spread biased discourses and conceptions of Islam. This state of affairs is at the origin of terrorism among the forgotten of the secular Republic, he said.