Famous for his notoriety. —Judith Butler, a professor at Berkeley, needs no introduction: reputed to be the creator of “gender theory” (although she denies that it is a theory, which is readily granted to her), she is also a valued reference in postcolonial studies. A professor at McGill University recently presented her as a kind of miracle worker: “Butler’s work on gender, sex, sexuality, queer identity, feminism, the body, combined with her political and ethical discourse, has changed the way scholars around the world consider identity, subjectivity, power, and politics. They have also changed lives countless people whose bodies, gender, sexuality and desires confront them with violence, exclusion and oppression"[1] (I emphasize). In short, Butler may be known for her notoriety, but she remains modest and compassionate. Thus, Cécile Daumas, in Libération of October 14, 2023, could write: "The American philosopher admired by LGBT+ people refuses to be an icon and continues to think about the present, from non-violence to the vulnerability of lives" and thus congratulated herself on her conference at the Centre Pompidou: "More than 800 people, gays, lesbians, trans, straight, non-binary, came to listen to Judith Butler like a quasi-oracle."
Revisions and Negations. — On Sunday March 3, 2024, at the invitation of the New Anti-Capitalist Party and in the presence of three La France Insoumise deputies, Judith Butler declared " I think it is more honest, and more historically correct, to say that the October 7 uprising was an act of armed resistance. It was not a terrorist attack, it was not an anti-Semitic attack: it was an attack on Israelis."
This statement is authorized by morality (" he is more honest ”) and historical truth (“ more historically correct "), even though it openly denies the historical reality documented and established by various commissions of inquiry, most recently the report of Pramilla Patten, UN special envoy.
The pogrom of October 7th would therefore be neither terrorist nor anti-Semitic. And as usual, Butler does not pronounce the word Islamism and does not seem to notice that these Israelis were Jews. The global Jihad thus becomes in his eyes a valiant struggle for national liberation.
Let us not see this as an apology for terrorism, since Butler denies terrorism, but the negationist dimension of her remarks cannot be overlooked; all the less so since she is here taking up the position of the Party of the Natives of the Republic, which immediately relayed her remarks, not without having assured Hamas of its "militant brotherhood".
A constant position. — In 2001, after the fall of the Taliban, Judith Butler calmly asserted that Afghan women who removed their burqas were “collaborators” with the Americans; they refused to understand “the important cultural meanings of the burqa, an exercise in modesty and pride, a protection against shame, a veil behind which female agency can and does operate.”[2]. The resumption of the smooth language of the Islamists, modesty et pride understood, suggest that Butler's LGBT feminism shares their contempt for women[3]— not to mention their anti-Semitism.
While claiming her Judaism, she explained in 2006 that "it is extremely important to consider Hamas and Hezbollah as progressive social movements, which are on the left and part of a global left."[4]
In 2009, under the title Is Secular Criticism? Blasphemy, Injury and Free Speech, She published a book with her partner and two renowned theorists, Talal Asad and Sarah Mamood, known for their closeness to the Muslim Brotherhood (to which Hamas claims to belong). This book, targeting Charlie Hebdo and caricatures of Mohammed, unfolds a thorough criticism of secularism and intends to theoretically found the criminalization of blasphemy.
The French translation, published by Presses Universitaires de Lyon, presents the authors as follows: "they question Western representations of belief and rationality and the normative frameworks that predispose them. The successive questions and objections of these intellectuals with diverse study horizons allow us to rethink the conventional oppositions between the West and Islam, freedom of expression and censorship, judgment and violence, reason and prejudice."[5].
With an eloquent and warm preface by Mathieu Potte-Bonneville, this French translation came out a year after the January massacres in Paris and Copenhagen and two months after those in November in Paris. It appeared, in the eyes of some, as a retrospective justification, while its original edition had participated in its own way in the global campaign that preceded, if not prepared, these attacks.
By a coincidence, Mathieu Potte-Bonneville now finds himself in charge of the Centre Pompidou's extensive programming, focusing on Judith Butler, the "guest of honour" for the year 2023-2024.
In 2014, Butler added a further contribution to deconstruction with his chapter in the book Deconstructing Zionism. The co-director of this collective, Gianni Vattimo, an international figure of deconstruction, pedagogically entitled "How to Become an Anti-Zionist", after having mentioned Ahmadinejad (then still President of the Islamic Republic), insinuated this: "As for the idea of making the State of Israel 'disappear' from the map - one of the ordinary themes of the Iranian 'threat' - it seems not to be completely unreasonable." He concluded, in the same mode of euphemistic concession: "Speaking of Israel as an 'unforgivable sin' is therefore not so excessive."
In November 2017, after the mass Islamist attacks, Judith Butler also distinguished herself with remarks that strangely cast doubt: published in English in To, they were translated on November 19, 2017 in Libération, under the title “A freedom attacked by the enemy and restricted by the State”. After finding the attack "shocking" (shocking), Butler casts doubt on Daesh's claim in two ways. On the one hand, she writes, "experts were certain they knew who the enemy was even before ISIS [Daesh] claimed responsibility for the attacks": this would lend credence, as it did on 11/XNUMX, to the theory of a conspiracy. The conspiracy theme is recurrent in this movement, and for example the Hamas charter calmly refers to the Protocol of the Elders of Zion, this fake from the tsarist police which is authoritative in his eyes.
After October 7, 2023, while condemning "violence" and not jihadism, Butler reiterated his support for Hamas' program: "The world I want is a world that opposes normalization." of the Israeli colonial regime (…) » (AOC, October 13, 2023), without, moreover, returning to the “left” label that she had previously attributed to it.
“Left-wing” Islamism. — Islamists would even be part of the international revolutionary cause, as Hardt and Negri assured in 2000: "The postmodernity of fundamentalism is recognized by its refusal of modernity as a weapon of Euro-American hegemony - in this regard, Islamic fundamentalism represents a paradigmatic example." They added "The postmodernity of fundamentalism is recognized by its refusal of modernity as a weapon of Euro-American hegemony - in this regard, Islamic fundamentalism represents a paradigmatic example[6] »
It will be understood that these pro-Iranian postmodernists and these jihadists affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood were deconstructors and not destroyers, left-wing progressives and not fanatical killers.
The "revolutionary" turn of Islamism was variously announced. In his book, Revolutionary Islam, Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, known as Carlos[7], already invited, with the ardor of the new convert, the "anti-globalization movements" to join the fight to "liberate the world from imperialist exploitation and Palestine from Zionist occupation." For this metapolitical conception, the assassins can become heroes (or martyrs), and the repression of the democrats illustrates a "paradigmatic" anti-imperialist revolution. This double regime of "truth" or at least this double language was recognized by Foucault from the bloody establishment of the Islamic Republic, for which he campaigned: according to him, Iran does not have "the same regime of truth as we[8] »
Beyond the shock of murderous violence, Islamists intend to disorient public opinion, prevent reflection, and reverse the roles of victims and executioners. By aggravating the confusion, by deepening it strategically, ideologues like Butler could thus claim the historic mission of supplementary.
LGBT Islamophilia. — However, one might be surprised that an “idol” of the LGBT communities supports an Islamist movement, while countries with Islamic law are strongly over-represented among the countries that still penalize homosexuality, and they are the ones that provide for the harshest penalties for homosexual acts, up to the death penalty, which is also the case for Islamist movements such as Daesh and Hamas. Moreover, we have not heard the postfeminists who describe themselves as “witches” express their indignation that in Saudi Arabia “witches” are still being beheaded with swords.
Queers for Palestine, Gays for Gaza, Sexworkers support a free Palestine, Black Lesbians for Free Palestine, There are countless pro-Palestinian LGBT groups. They use this unifying language: "it is the colonial situation in Palestine, which has lasted for 75 years, which is the root of all this violence."[9]. "The collective Les Inverti-es has published a press release stating: " Trans, fags, dykes support Palestine! LGBT+ liberation requires the liberation of the Palestinian people. »[10]. However, intersectional activists have remained silent on the truly genocidal singularity of the collective rapes committed on October 7, accompanied by atrocious acts of barbarity - in which it remains difficult to discern a just struggle of resistance to imperialist colonization.
Like all of their actions, these rapes were documented by the jihadists themselves, who broadcast live feeds from the cameras attached to their helmets. Crossing a threshold in the history of terrorist communication and surpassing Daesh, they impose the classic subjective vision in video games called shoot'em up, showing the murders seen by the executioners – an initiatory vision for those they want to recruit. In addition, something new in the history of abjection, they have used their victims' cell phones to broadcast their agony live on their family and friends' networks.
Butler sees no trace of anti-Semitism here and has remained silent on these rapes, contenting herself with condemning "violence". Responding to a question posed during the decolonial meeting of 1er March 2024, she cast doubt on the October 7 rapes: "Whether or not there is documentation of the allegations of rape of Israeli women [skeptical grimace], OK, if there is documentation, then we deplore it, but we want to see that documentation."[11].
The Nazis of old still had, if not a sense of guilt, at least the prudence to conceal their crimes and to promote negationism. Nothing like that with what one can call jihadist affirmationism, which since Daesh intends to fascinate the partisans and terrorize the survivors.
Despite the authenticated evidence, postfeminist currents have remained in denial, following in this the Palestinian officials, such as Hala Abou Hassira, Palestinian ambassador to France, who, questioned by France Info about the rapes committed on October 7, responded that "since October 7, Israel has not stopped lying and manipulating the international community."
Also, feminist activists, mostly Jewish, who wanted to denounce these rapes in the demonstration against sexual violence organized mainly by NousToutes on November 25, 2023, were unable to march, sidelined and threatened by an "anti-fascist" group that provided security. On March 8, in Paris, collectives of Jewish feminists had to be exfiltrated from the demonstration for women's rights, following anti-Semitic insults, threats and projectiles thrown.[12].
The militant genre. — Some have worried that Judith Butler's remarks will have a negative effect on gender theory and will tarnish its luster. Should we distinguish between the activist and the theoretician? Butler does not distinguish between her political positions and her philosophical orientations. In this, she is only an example of the academic activism that thrives with the Studies based on identity criteria of race or gender. These militant disciplines do not care about determining their object, but stick to their moral and political objectives[13].
Since, following Foucault, Butler made her sexual orientation an ingredient, even a flagship product, of her LGBT thought, it would be discourteous to separate the woman from the work.
The status and content of gender studies remains elusive and has long been perfectly suited to Butler's notorious positions. The global unanimity of gender studies departments around support for Hamas does not seem to be undermined, nor does Butler's credibility in circles where she remains a major icon.
Institutional support— In early December 2023, concerned by Butler's previous pro-Hamas statements, Paris City Hall banned an ultra-left meeting with Judith Butler against "anti-Semitism and its instrumentalization and for revolutionary peace in Palestine."
French academic and cultural institutions, however, demonstrate a remarkable attachment to Butler's person and thought. She is the guest of honor at the École normale supérieure on rue d'Ulm, where she is to deliver a series of lectures. And the Centre Pompidou organizes a program associated with Judith Butler throughout the year, with a series of lectures and many intellectual and artistic meetings. The associated budgets undoubtedly also deserve respect, because Butler is known for not speaking for less than $5.000.
Faced with the scandal, at the last minute, on March 6, the management of the École normale supérieure published this tweet: "The two planned conferences on the theme of mourning that were to be given by Professor Butler on March 6 and 13 are postponed. This decision was made in agreement with her and all the organizers." The hushed wording remains dilatory, however, and does not prejudge the future.
For the moment, the other inviting institutions, as well as the ministries of education and culture, have remained silent. I do not know if this discretion will be able to continue, because the supervisory institutions cannot evade their responsibility. We could expect that the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, will show no less political courage than the mayor of Paris.
As for the Home Office, which is rightly concerned about apologies for terrorism, it recently expelled a Tunisian imam for less serious statements. He was less illustrious than she, but one can trust Judith Butler's tact to decide to return to Berkeley of her own accord and thus put an end to an embarrassing situation.
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Geopolitical issues. — The stakes of academic and cultural Islamophilia are not limited to intellectual circles and they already have major geopolitical consequences. For example, in the USA, supported by university mobilizations, Islamist propaganda threatens the Democratic candidate in the next presidential election in the five key states, the swing states, first and foremost Michigan, which has 175.000 Muslim voters.
The Islamists are indeed betting on Trump, the best enemy of democracy that they abhor. In this state, the town hall of the industrial city of Harmstrack is held by a Yemeni, Amer Ghalib, who willingly poses with Donald Trump's former security adviser, Michael Flynn, dismissed for his links with Russia in 2017, and known for his proximity to the conspiracy group QAnon. A close friend of the mayor, Nasr Hussain, wonders on a site dedicated to the city: "Wasn't the Holocaust a preventive punishment of God against “the chosen people” and its current savagery against Palestinian children and civilians?”[14]I" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow ugc">See source.
