When Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher, after showing his pupils some caricatures published in the weekly 'Charlie-Hebdo, was brutally murdered by a terrorist on October 16 in a Parisian suburb, the French government, joined by some academics and intellectuals, immediately went on a warpath against Muslims and what some refer to in the 'Manifesto of One Hundred' as “Islamo-leftists” (“Islamo-gauchistes”). The latter they located in French universities and associations, blaming them for being conciliatory towards terrorists. This opened up a huge vista for the extreme-right.
The Minister of Education extended the blame and responsibility for violence on “intersectionality” as a concept and a perspective, described as an “an intellectual matrix […] coming from the USA”. This attack on freedom of speech in academia and all forms of critical thinking took place at a time when the Minister for Research was preparing a new law which, if passed, poses the threat of an end to free research.
The extreme-right multiplies threats against what they consider the “enemy”. Leading sociologist Eric Fassin has received death threats, and journalists from the critical online media Mediapart, violent menaces. At the same time, the Minister of Interior prepares a new law for public safety which opens the path for a police state. For instance, it will be forbidden (and outlawed) to publish images and videos of police committing violence. Researchers, scholars, intellectuals and civil society have vigorously reacted, denouncing these dangerous lies and defending freedom of research and of expression. This open letter has been signed by over 2000 French scholars.
