At the Sorbonne, the ceiling of the Louis Liard amphitheater is painted with a fresco whose details escaped me, I admit, when I defended a state thesis there; but fortunately, Christelle Rabier, Lecturer (Authorized to supervise research) at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, has just shed light on its profound significance in the journal movements by a long article entitled “Scholars and politicians against “Islamo-leftism” (n° 112 winter 2022).
Due to lack of space and doubtless lack of competence, I will only retain here the description of this fresco at the turn of pages 46/47:
"Commissioned in 1882 and presented at the 1899 Salon before the building's inauguration in 1903, it represents the dream of a lecturer where History, Philosophy and Science turn towards the dazzling Truth that hurls Ignorance into Nothingness. A banner indicates that "studious youth are invited not to forget the truth of their ancestors"; History holds in its hands a stele on which one can read Gesta Dei per Francos or "God's action passes through the Franks", a formula coined by the historian of the crusades Guibert de Nogent (1053-1125), thus inextricably linking the university project of the Sorbonne to that of a "civilizing" and Catholic colonial expansion.
It is not known why the painter François Schommer would have represented the dream of a lecturer (if not that of Mrs Rabier), or why the laureate and scantily clad genius holding a marble plaque (and not a "stele") would embody History: the essential remains the providential mention of Guibert de Nogent.
At this point, the reader, bewildered by these iconographic considerations, receives a revelation: "Good Lord! But of course!" By the title God's Gift for the French, the colonial project of a new crusade inspired the infamous “colloquium of shame” (sic):
"On the ceiling of the amphitheater where the event "After Deconstruction" was held, in the presence of Dominique Schnapper, Jean-Michel Blanquer, Nathalie Heinich and Vincent Tournier, we can still see the allegory painted by François Schommer, when the young French Republic placed its hopes in science and colonization."
Also, "enthroned above those who still claim to be the ''Truth dazzling Ignorance'', this ceiling takes on a particular meaning on January 7 and 8, 2022. In a sense, these men and women are taking up the epistemological foundations of the last century, based on French - or European - superiority and a certain ''male fraternity''. They (sic) recognize its dazzling validity all the more easily because they (sic) share the political foundations of an imperial Republic that is not yet secular, but powerfully colonial (…)”.
It would be discourteous to point out the argumentative fragility of these allegories, which are certainly common in the conspiracy sphere where contagious incriminations are amplified to the point of delirium, but still rare in academic circles. In any case, it matters little that this supposed revival of the first crusade was concluded by Gilbert Abergel, president of the Comité Laïcité République, who, paying little attention to the ceiling fresco, declared himself: "at home in the Sorbonne".
After all, secularism would seem to be nothing more than shameful Islamophobia, since Ms. Rabier attacks Dominique Schnapper at length: not only did "the president of the Museum of Jewish Art and History declare that racialized people would prevent non-racialized people from studying racism or fighting it" but Dominique Schnapper seems to fear attacks on republican principles, but only targets Islamism: "the only example of this ''perversion'' mentioned by the current president of the Committee of Wise Men of Secularism of National Education: Islamism". It is true that according to Rabier she is "at the head" of the "entrepreneurs in inquisition committed to rectifying the ''Islamo-leftist'' perversions that the university community is supposedly suffering".
But why emphasize that Dominique Schnapper is the "daughter of a Jewish intellectual"? (Raymond Aron). Should we fear that she is Islamophobic from birth?
To conclude, hopefully provisionally, her allegorical fight against the new crusaders, Mrs. Rabier is right to express her justified gratitude to Pierre Bataille, Guilhem Corot, Éric Fassin, Olivier Foubert, Caroline Ibos, Isabelle Laboulais and the editorial staff of the research notebook Academy, so well placed to attest that the so-called “Islamo-leftism” does not exist and that the crusade against colonial masculinity will soon be victorious.
