We co-publish the column by Xavier-Laurent Salvador and Jean Szlamowic published on the Point website here

It was in 2003. As part of a conference on "secularism at university" organized in September by the Conference of University Presidents, the first vice-president of the Conference Michel Laurent affirmed that "communitarian tendencies, most often of a religious nature [...] constitute both a reality that some of us experience on a daily basis, and, more broadly, a subject of political tension and demands in our society." Eighteen years later, in 2021, Frédérique Vidal finally agreed that there was a problem with activist activism within French universities. That is, exactly what the 100 stand still very recently and ourselves within the Observatory of Decolonialism and Identity Ideologies denounce daily, notably in the columns of Point. While we can be pleased about the legitimacy of the debate finally recognized by this government, we can however be concerned about the method chosen... The minister explained that she wanted to entrust the mission of investigating activism at the university to the CNRS. Is this a good idea? Not sure.

Antoine Petit, president of the CNRS, in the preface he wrote to the book by Pascal Blanchard et al., Sexuality, Identity & Colonized Bodies, Éditions du CNRS, 2019 writes that "Race" becomes the new grid for reading the world on which the gender grid is integrated, and which is articulated with the male-female hierarchy" (p.10). He adds that "the study of "races” […] constitutes the heart of the organization of the sexual order c » (p. 10) as well as that « in the context of very heteronormative and androcentric societies, colonization nevertheless remains a materially and symbolically masculine » (p. 9). He thus protests his attachment to a racialist and sexist organization of the world, exposing himself to the idea that universalism – this keystone of the republican edifice – could no longer play a role in our “Darwinian economy” of research.

Perhaps he is right? Perhaps it is well-founded? It remains to be proven… But we can understand that the research community is alarmed to see its boss change the rules of the game without having been consulted. We are worried to see that the investigation is being entrusted to the main suspect… There is, however, an institution whose mission is to evaluate research and teaching in higher education, whose name is not mentioned. This is the High Council for Research and Higher Education (HCERES), which could be the body of a general inspection of higher education if it were given the means. We are therefore surprised to see the CNRS, which is like Inserm or Inria a research and innovation organization, become the main actor in an internal investigation, when we can doubt the neutrality of the commissioner, what is more.

An interesting alignment of the ministers' speeches

When very recently some of us were alarmed to see Frédérique Vidal to assert that "postcolonial studies had their place in the university", it was clear that she was right to do so and that there was a subtlety in these remarks that should have taken the time to explain. No, postcolonial studies are not decolonialism: the former is an observatory on discourses in a historical context; the latter is a politically oriented interpretative key that subverts disciplines.

And we see this distinction being established today, which must be encouraged, between the incontestable legitimacy of certain studies, and the subversion of scientific discourse by projects without disciplinary and methodological basis. Yes, today in the university, we are witnessing in literature and in the human sciences in particular the distortion of the mission of analysis and academic studies of phenomena in favor of studies campaigning for a questionable moral order based on a racialist and sexist reading of the world, and with the ambition of changing it.

There are many examples that illustrate this "autonomy" of the university that sometimes turns into separatism. We list many examples on our site. One researcher introduces an academic article by explaining that "this right-thinking despotism, called "Republic" or "secularism" is correlative to diffuse practices of relegation". Another author also deplores that "if the weight of the family on the daughters of immigrants is part of the commonplaces, the impact of “assimilationist” pressure is less often admitted » making of assimilation Republican values ​​are a phenomenon of questionable social constraint. Academics present the France as a colonial state, declare their "love" for Houria Bouteldja, defend BarakaCity or the CCIF or develop an obsessive militant thought making "Islamophobia" a concept that would define the State in France in order to spread the idea that France would be a land apartheidlike any other, without a specific history. Today, one can support a historiographical thesis on a theologian of the Muslim Brotherhood wanted by Interpol or write articles relaying his ideas in scholarly journals.

Corporate denial

In a surprising response, the university staff delegates, who are the university presidents, gathered in council, are making a nasty case against Madame Minister for using the word "Islamo-leftism", which they refer to as "barroom talk". In doing so, however, Frédérique Vidal is only using, on her own behalf and on behalf of her ministry, the very words that were used by Jean-Michel Blanquer within the very heart of theNational Assembly – a new kind of counter. The use of the word testifies for the first time in recent history to a governmental solidarity of positions and discourses between the Ministry of Research and National Education. We should therefore institutionally welcome this alignment which testifies to a real political awareness of an international issue and a mobilization without precedent in recent history. Everywhere today we are witnessing a mobilization for the defense of academic freedoms, as in Canada where researchers are organizing for the first time a petition for the "Submission of a bill guaranteeing the academic freedom of university teaching staff".

Instead, the CPU denies the existence of Islamo-leftism on the pretext that it is not a "scientific concept" and "that it would be appropriate to leave [...] to the extreme right that popularized it". Of course, it is a critical term, but it has indeed been methodically described, notably by the philosopher and political scientist Pierre-André Taguieff. And above all, it is no less scientific or relevant than "right", "left" or "extreme right". It is alarming to hear talk of a threat to academic freedom by the CPU or opponents of the minister's remarks when the decolonial currents are precisely those who try to muzzle the work of researchers who do not support their theses. This is a victim-based argumentative reversal that illustrates a corporatist denial. The CPU should nevertheless be happy to put a stop to the excesses!

For its part, the Observatory of Decolonialism and Identity Ideologies would like to be the place of debate where the intellectual cartography of the penetration of militant ideas imported from American sociology would be constructed. We will endeavor to work on this task in order to gather the elements that reinforce republican universalism within our institution and the report that we draw from it will obviously be made available.