The Toulouse killings

Marine Le Pen, the radical right and French Islamophobia - Part II

Nicolas Lebourg 1 May 2012

Nicolas Lebourg continues (see part one) to explore how the Toulouse events contributed to shaping Marine Le Pen’s electoral strategy. While it is dubious that Islamophobia played the most decisive part in her latest presidential score, she placed it on the top of the political agenda for the second round.

The politics of interpreting Toulouse

Brigitte Beauzamy 30 April 2012
The use of anti-Semitism as the main narrative for “Toulouse” led to an internationalising step in the depiction of these events, as commentators increasingly linked the attacks to the Israel/Palestine conflict. Comments then focused on the alleged responsibility of “Israel” or “Muslims” in Merah’s killings.

Who is the enemy Other?

Jeffrey Stevenson Murer 16 April 2012
In ganging up on housing estates, in racist attacks or inter-state brinkmanship, how does the enemy become the Other? This peculiar purification process requires a narrative and a chance to 'perform a boundary'. For local and national communities, leaders and politicians alike, it is one way to reinforce our own sense of group identity. Is there another way of feeling secure?

The Toulouse killings and the radical right - part I

Nicolas Lebourg 5 April 2012
There were some good reasons to suspect the French extreme right of theToulouse killings. In this first article, Nicolas Lebourg shows how, once the identity of the killer was known, Marine Le Pen could switch her discourse to Islamophobia, a terrain on which she feels most comfortable.

Muslim radicalism: the power of friendship

Hasnet Lais 1 April 2012
Why do some Muslims join radical groups? Theories abound but their analytic capacity remains low as they tend to focus on only a single aspect of this complex issue. Something they miss is why new recruits consider joining these groups a positive thing: they find good friends there.

The debate France urgently needs after the Toulouse attacks

Elena Georgantzis 30 March 2012

In 'sensitive urban zones' where a third of residents live below the poverty line and unemployment among young people is over 40%, it is difficult to see how people like Mohammed Merah can become part of France’s social fabric. 

The blame game, and then Toulouse...

Wasseem El Sarraj 22 March 2012

If Israel wants to keep Palestine off the map, so to speak, and exaggerate existential threats: what is the end game? There are days, viewed from Gaza, when one must feel an even graver concern for an already bleak future. And then news comes in from France...

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