If Tariq Ramadan's first trial ended in Geneva on May 24, it would be wrong to consider that his militant teaching against all secularism is outdated: it only prospers. When thirty years ago, he managed to have the performance of Voltaire's Mahomet banned in Geneva, it was only the beginning of a wave of censorship and self-censorship that continues today in French education: not only would no one think of studying this play any more, but Candide, which is largely anti-Catholic, is being purged of everything that could make a student claiming to be Muslim tick.
However, the attacks on secularism in schools amounted to 500 cases for the month of March 2023 alone, according to Minister Pap Ndiaye, whose soothing statements are as follows: "The figures (...) show a decrease since the peak in October. There is always a peak in October linked in particular to the commemoration of the assassination of Samuel Paty. And then there is always a rise, every year at the time of Ramadan," he said without specifying the nature of these attacks on secularism. "We are at around 500 cases for the month of March," added the minister. "The month of April, we will have the figures soon, it will decrease," due to the end of Ramadan, but also the "spring holidays." Without dwelling on these autumn or spring variations, let's bet that the month of August will be even better...
The general opinion of specialists is that the number of attacks on secularism seems to be underestimated, due to the lack of qualification of the facts. This will be all the more so since Pap Ndiaye has just deprived the Council of Elders of Secularism of the power to take action itself regarding the attacks reported to it: it will have to wait for the rectors, who report to the minister, to refer the matter. In the absence of a direct, public and independent reporting platform, we are reduced to conjectures about the number and seriousness of these attacks.
Here is, however, an eloquent testimony. It comes from a high school teacher friend of mine, a state doctor, Michel D., to whom I will leave the floor.
“In early 2021, in a course devoted to classical tragedy, where the study of Zaïre as a Voltairean imitation of “the Illustrious Corneille” was discussed, the allusion to the Treatise on Tolerance prompted me – I was wrong to do so – to take this example of censorship against another tragedy by the same author:
Hervé Loichemol, "A fatwa against Voltaire?" , Le Monde, February 14, 2006:
“In September 1993, Tariq Ramadan entered the public debate. He challenged public opinion and the Geneva authorities regarding a proposed stage production—which I wanted to direct—of Voltaire’s tragedy, Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet . The local cultural authorities sided with Mr. Ramadan and Mr. Hafid Ouardiri, the current spokesperson for the Geneva mosque. They decided against including this production in the commemorations of the tercentenary of Voltaire’s birth (1694), thus preventing the play from being staged.”
Twelve years later, still faithful to his post, Mr. Hafid Ouardiri, firmly armed with tolerance in his left hand and blasphemy in his right, once again intervened with the French and Swiss authorities to have the simple reading of this play banned. This time, the political and artistic leaders of Geneva and neighboring France decided to enforce secular rules: the much-feared reading therefore took place on Thursday, December 8 and Saturday, December 10, 2005, at the Jean-Monnet Cultural Center in Saint-Genis-Pouilly and at the Carouge-Atelier Theater in Geneva, in the presence of a large audience and under police protection.
What was the crime? It was a matter of a few actors reading a tragedy in 5 acts and in alexandrines, written 264 years ago, available from Gallimard for a long time, very recently published by Garnier-Flammarion, accessible on the Internet and performed last year for several weeks in a Parisian theater without a single problem. The vigilance of the censors is therefore not infallible. Why on earth did the public presentation of this play, censored for the commemoration of Voltaire, become possible twelve years later? Our current devotees have perhaps not measured that the dishonor of the commemoration had left traces that needed to be repaired. (…) ».
"My school audience," the teacher continues, "was made up of a "mixed" class, where a few self-declared Muslim students found it "normal" that their hero Tariq Ramadan would act in this way against our classic playwright... The controversy would have ended there if the next lesson had not been suddenly interrupted by the irruption of a then unknown student (from a different class than mine), a Big Brother of sorts, Driss T., who jostled me as soon as the door opened, threw me to the ground (the 64 kilos of a 70 meter climber against the more than 80 kilos of a 80 meter rapper! We don't box in the same category), and sprayed my eyes with hydroalcoholic gel (a post-Covid weapon!). All this without a word and in front of a stunned, apathetic class.
Complaint filed with the police station and legal result attached [a summons for a reminder of the law]. Silence from the management of the high school, as well as the teachers' union...
The motive for the attack remained a mystery to the Judicial Police Officer, who did not recognize the causal link between the "tragic" context (Voltaire-Ramadan) and the act of the student, claiming to have wanted to attack a classmate... prevented by the teacher!
To my question: "The student gets off with a reminder, nothing more? This is not reported as an attack on secularism, I imagine", the attacked teacher replied: "No attack on secularism; the student maintains his version: HE is the victim of a teacher who prevented him from settling his scores... in class! Yes, a reminder of the law... a little moral lesson, "no more"".
It is worth remembering that violence against a person performing a public service is punishable by three years in prison and a €45.000 fine. The pretext for the attack—the public reading of a 2006 article from Le Monde , a newspaper considered moderate—is obviously ludicrous.
To gauge the distance traveled since then, one might well doubt that such a text would be publishable in Le Monde today . At least, judging by its commentary following the suspension by the dean of a Sorbonne lecture by researcher Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, after the publication by Odile Jacob of her book, Le frérisme et ses réseaux (The Brotherhood and its Networks ). Despite her being threatened and under police protection, Le Monde attacked her, running the headline "Questions Remain," citing François Burgat, a staunch supporter of the Brotherhood and close to the Emirate of Qatar: "For the past few weeks, the researcher has been the target of criticism from academics who accuse her of an 'ethnocentric vision' and a lack of 'fieldwork' . " Among the most virulent was François Burgat, emeritus research director at the CNRS, who denounced "the nasty operation of Florence Bergeaud-Blackler" [1] .
In December 2022, Ifop reported that 56% of public secondary school teachers said they had already self-censored their teaching, to avoid any incident triggered in the name of religious or philosophical beliefs, i.e. 7 points more than in 2020, and 20 points more than in 2018, before the assassination of Samuel Paty.
A chain of cowardice has been set up: the management of establishments avoids qualifying the facts, the police too, the sanctions remain null or derisory. The victims are faced with various dilatory denials like this one: "I cannot find any trace by email of the reminders that you say you sent me to find out the follow-up given. You have also not since that date requested an interview that would have allowed me to specify to you earlier the follow-up given to this incident".
The attacks that have nevertheless been declared join a list counted by the Ministry, but which remains opaque, which recently allowed the Rector of the Great Mosque of Paris to contest its content. Finally, the rare researchers who intend to go beyond these appearances and establish links with religious proselytism are defamed in a certain press, can hardly express themselves in universities and are victims of threats.
Thus the Brothers prevail over Voltaire and the secular teaching which they abhor, because they still consider it as an obstacle to their political theology.
Let's give the last word to the assaulted teacher—whose physical courage and "strong spirit" I know well, having done a bit of rock climbing with him: "Since this ideologically motivated brawl, which was ignored by my superiors (I still remember the headmaster's words: '...you know very well that our school is not plagued by communal disputes...'—the student receiving an hour of detention for the 'shove'), I approach even the pages of Candide that I thought were innocent in class with suspicion , and Persian Letters are expunged of any allusion to Muslims. Yes, I admit it, I censor myself, a privilege of age, since until my sixties I had never refrained from debating with those who disagreed. A vague apprehension lingers daily, I confess, when I think of the memory of Samuel Paty."
The professor asked for anonymity, of course, the name of the attacker has been changed, and silence extends its law.
