France’s Minister of Higher Education and Research, Frédérique Vidal, a molecular geneticist at the University of Nice-Sophia-Antipolis, has been one of the most outspoken government figures decrying so-called “Islamo-gauchistes.” In response, more than 600 French academics have demanded that Vidal step down. She has said that “Islamo-leftism” is eroding French society and has proposed to study its effects on universities. Her academic adversaries argue that the proposed inquiry is designed to “defame” the teaching community and will have a “devastating” effect. “Just like in Orban’s Hungary, Bolsonaro’s Brazil or Duda’s Poland, postcolonial and decolonial studies, the work on racial discrimination, gender studies and intersectionality are specifically targeted.”
France’s Fake “Islamo-Leftist” Crisis • by Raphaël Liogier
In an open letter published in Le Monde in February, they wrote, “We can only deplore the indigence of Frédérique Vidal, who is using the repertoire of the far right about imaginary ‘Islamo-leftism.’” They refer to “Islamo-leftism” as a “conspiracy theory,” and call for Vidal’s resignation.
Vidal’s proclamations have also alarmed Pınar Selek, a Turkish sociologist, feminist anti-militarist activist and writer, who lives in exile in France where she obtained French citizenship in 2017.
Pinar Selek’s open letter to Minister Vidal appeared in Mediapart on the 21st of February, 2021, as follows:
Mrs. Vidal,
You remember me, the exiled teacher-researcher that you welcomed, as part of the PAUSE Program, at the Université Côte d’Azur, when you were its president. But we met for the first time, on September 30, 2019, in the framework of the press conference of the PAUSE Program (National Program for the Emergency Reception of Scientists in Exile). As Minister of Higher Education and Research, you supported this program. I think you still support it. So much the better: you support teacher-researchers who have fled political repression in their country and who need a space of freedom to continue to ask questions and conduct their research.
Since your recent statements on “Islamo-leftism”, I am in a terrible nightmare. Your speech awakens everything that I have experienced and everything that my colleagues in Turkey are experiencing, under Islamo-fascism. I think that all the exiled scientists who are now hosted by the PAUSE Program have entered the same nightmare, because they also know very well how academic freedom is narrowed when political powers intervene in the scientific field with the justification of the fight against terrorism. In general, this is how it happens. In Turkey, in China, in Iran. And today in France.
I want to tell you that if you don’t publicly retract what you said or if you don’t resign, the cancer will spread and French scientists will go into exile. Don’t tell me that in France this is not possible. Yes, Madame Vidal, it is. You know it better than I do: Petainism is not that old. Remember in the 1940s, there were many French academics in exile, refusing to submit to fascism.
You may remember that in the PAUSE press conference, I began my speech by saying: “To spare you a victimizing story and to distance myself from an integrationist vision impregnated with colonialism, I thought I would first remind you that every country needs people to pass on scientific theories. Especially France which has great difficulties of translation. It needs scientists who have been trained in other countries; moreover, welcoming scientists who are not subject to authority can only be an asset for those who welcome them.” I ask you to pay attention to my words, which have been forged through a very tough experience of defending the freedom of research and the autonomy of scientific production.
Mrs Vidal, try to write scientific articles, with your academic hat on, to question scientific notions and join the collective debate of researchers, but above all stop intervening by putting on your political hat! Otherwise you will start the infernal machine. And the machine of power can go further than you can imagine.
–Pinar Selek
Meanwhile, on the 4th of March, 2021, more than 200 Anglophone academics published an open letter in Le Monde, denouncing the “witch hunt” led by Minister Frédérique Vidal. warning that with Islamo-leftism, “We cannot fail to underline the resonance with the darkest moments of French history.”
Dear Colleagues,
We are writing to express our profound dismay at the recent request by the French Minister of Higher Education and Research, Frédérique Vidal, for the CNRS (The French National Centre for Scientific Research) to investigate allegations of “Islamo-gauchisme” (Islamo-leftism) in French universities. We regret that after proposed laws regarding the alleged threat of “separatism” have further stigmatized France’s Muslim community, academics are being blamed for the increasingly polarized atmosphere. The proposal to monitor university professors accused of “weaponizing academic research for political motives” effectively amounts to a threat of censorship and is worrying for a number of reasons:
First, the state has no right to censor research by academics who draw on their expertise to advance the production of knowledge. This is a dangerous precedent that cannot be tolerated in democratic societies. The notion that certain academics are trying to “divide” society due to their “Islamo-leftist” ideas in effect demonizes our colleagues for their alleged ideological complicity with a religious group in the name of protecting the Republic. This immediately reminds one of some of the darkest moments of French history when a discourse against “Judeo-Bolsheviks” created an amalgam between political and religious commitments.
Second, the approaches now under attack were inspired by some of the most brilliant minds of the French philosophical, literary, and sociological traditions. As scholars working in the United States and elsewhere, we carry a great intellectual debt to France for training thinkers such as Frantz Fanon, Albert Memmi, Hélène Cixous, Aimé Césaire, Paulette Nardal, Jean-Paul Sartre, Pierre Bourdieu, Louis Althusser, Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault. Many of these figures were not only towering thinkers but were also engaged in prolonged political struggles for the betterment of our societies. These committed intellectuals are pillars of the diverse approaches that are now being attacked under the rubric of “post-colonialism.” That a country which has advanced critical thought should now turn its back on this national patrimony is short-sighted and distressing. We ask not that everyone agree on the merits of these approaches, only that French scholars have the right to debate them with their colleagues and students should they so desire.
Third, those responsible for higher education should address the pressing need to find concrete solutions to the problem of racial discrimination in France, rather than carry out a witch hunt against researchers. In lieu of inviting scholars to help advance a common struggle for equality, the Minister of Higher Education and Research is threatening them with censorship. Instead of addressing the dire situation of students during a global pandemic, or the real economic challenges facing public education, Vidal and her colleagues have depicted professors as the main threat to French universities.
Many signatories of this letter have benefited from prolonged academic exchanges with French universities in institutional as well as individual capacities. Eager that these collaborations with our French colleagues can continue in the spirit of open debate, we again draw your attention to the chilling effects that these threats of censorship would have on academic freedom.
The following individuals and organizations endorse the letter in support of academic freedom in France:
Organizations:
California Scholars for Academic Freedoms (a group of over 200 academics working in higher education in California)
The French Colonial Historical Society (International)
Council for European Studies (International)
Individuals:
Muriam Haleh Davis, Assistant Professor of History, University of California, Santa Cruz
Sang Hea Kil, Associate Professor, Justice Studies, San Jose State University
Kevin B Anderson, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara
Lisa Rofel, Emerita Faculty, Anthropology Department, University of California, Santa Cruz
Fatima El-Tayeb, Professor of Literature, University of California, San Diego
Elizabeth Bishop, Associate Professor, Department of History, Texas State University San Marcos TX
Sherene Seikaly, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara
Benjamin Brower, Associate Professor, Department of History, The University of Texas at Austin
Elizabeth M. Perego, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Appalachian State University
Patrick Crowley, Senior Lecturer, Department of French, University College Cork
Paul A. Silverstein, Professor of Anthropology, Reed College
J. P. Daughton, Associate Professor, Department of History, Stanford University
Darcie Fontaine, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of South Florida
Zachary Lockman, Professor, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies/History, New York University
Benoit Challand, Associate Professor, Sociology, New School for Social Research, New York
Devra Weber, Emerita Professor, History, University of California, Riverside
Ivan Huber, Prof. Emeritus, Biology, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ., Madison, NJ, USA
Carole Browner, Research Professor, Anthropology, Gender Studies, Semel Institute, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Dennis Kortheuer, Emeritus, History, California State University, Long Beach
Judith Butler, Prof. Emer., Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley
Aslı Bâli, Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA
Alma Rachel Heckman, Assistant Professor of History, University of California Santa Cruz
Paola Bacchetta, Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Judith Surkis, Professor of History, Rutgers University
Jill Jarvis, Assistant Professor of French, Yale University
Fernando Leiva, Professor, Latin American and Latino Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz
Jennifer Kelly, Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Univerisity of California, Santa Cruz
Noëmie Duhaut, Associate Researcher, Department of History, Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG), Mainz, Germany
Thomas Bedorf, Professor, Philosophy, FernUniversitaet in Hagen, Germany
Nat Godley, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Alverno College
Nidhi Mahajan, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz
Dónal Hassett, Lecturer in French, University College Cork
Itay Lotem, Lecturer in French Studies, University of Westminster, London
Frederick Cooper, Professor Emeritus of History, New York University
Phi-Van, Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Science, Université de Saint-Boniface
Ann Laura Stoler, Professor of Anthropology, The New School for Social Research
Pascal Menoret, Associate Professor, anthropology, Brandeis University
Allison Korinek, Postdoctoral Fellow, Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities, Washington University in St. Louis
Aslı Iğsız, Associate Professor, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University
David Palumbo-Liu, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor, Stanford University
Helga Tawil-Souri, Associate Professor, Media, Culture and Communication, New York University
Sandrine Sanos, Professor of Modern European History, Texas A & M – University – Corpus Christi
Arjun Appadurai, New York University and Bard Graduate Center
Sinan Antoon, Associate Professor, New York University
Atacan Atakan, PhD Candidate, School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of Arizona
Esra Akcan, Professor, Department of Architecture; Director, Institute for European Studies at Einaudi Center for International Studies, Cornell University
Ismail Fajrie Alatas, Assistant Professor, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University.
Pınar Kemerli, Global Liberal Studies, NYU
Deborah Gould, Associate Professor of Sociology, UC Santa Cruz
SA Smythe, Assistant Professor of Gender Studies and African American Studies, UCLA
Terrence G. Peterson, Assistant Professor of History, Florida International University
Lily Chumley, Associate Professor, Media, Culture, and Communication, NYU
Simten Cosar, Professor, Visiting Instructor, Global Studies Center, University of Pittsburgh
Ayça Alemdaroğlu, Research Scholar, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
Zeynep Korkman, Assistant Professor, Gender Studies, University of California Los Angeles
Joel Beinin, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History, Emeritus, Stanford University
Dina Al-Kassim, Associate Professor, Institute for Social Justice, University of British Columbia
Daniel Katz, Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick
James Petterson, Professor of French, Wellesley College
Mayanthi Fernando, Associate Professor, Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz
Megan Brown, Assistant Professor of History, Swarthmore College
David G. Troyansky, Professor of History, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York
Emily Marker, Assistant Professor of History, Rutgers University
Jean-Michel Rabate, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania
Timothy Scott Johnson, Professional Assistant Professor of History, Texas A & M University – Corpus Christi
Osman Balkan, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science, Swarthmore College
Burleigh Hendrickson, Assistant Professor of French & Francophone Studies, Pennsylvania State University
Alexandra Gueydan-Turek, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Swarthmore College
Margaret Ferguson, Distinguished Professor of English Emerita, University of California at Davis
Howard Winant, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara
Anne Norton, Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
Kory Olson, Associate Professor of French, Stockton University
Robert S. DuPlessis, Clothier Professor of History Emeritus, Swarthmore College
Hunter Bivens, Associate Professor of Literature, UC Santa Cruz
Micheline Rice-Maximin, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Swarthmore College, PA
Miriam Ticktin, Associate Professor, Anthropology, The New School for Social Research, New York
Nancy Gallagher, Professor Emerita of History, University of California, Santa Barbara
Andrew Denning, Associate Professor of History, University of Kansas
Olivia Sabee, Assistant Professor of Dance, Swarthmore College
Ayşe Baltacıoğlu-Brammer, Assistant Professor of History, NYU
Sarah J. Zimmerman, Associate Professor of History, Western Washington University
Judith DeGroat, Associate Professor of History, St. Lawrence University, USA
Sarah Davies Cordova, Professor of French and Francophone Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Jennifer A. Boittin, Associate Professor of French, Francophone Studies, and History, Penn State University
Chris Rominger, Assistant Professor of History, University of North Florida
Melissa K. Byrnes, Associate Professor of History, Southwestern University
Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, Professor of Modern Culture and Media, Brown University
Mara Mills, Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University
Marie-Claire Vallois, Department of Romance Studies, Cornell University
Enzo Traverso, Professor in the Humanities, Cornell University
Julie Livingston, Silver Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History, New York University
Halil Yenigun, Lecturer, San Jose State University
Anthony Alessandrini, Professor of English & Middle Eastern Studies, City University of New York
Ahlam Muhtaseb, Professor of Media Studies, California State University
H. Nese Ozgen, PhD, Visiting Scholar, Department of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University
Siraj Ahmed, Professor of English, CUNY Graduate Center and Lehman College
Carol Ferrara, Assistant Professor, Emerson College
Nouzha Guessous, Professor of Women’s Rights and Bioethics in Islamic Contexts, Hassan II University of Casablanca, Morocco
Venus Bivar, Lecturer (Assistant Professor), Department of History, University of York
Joan W Scott, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ
Kemal Moula, French Professor, Communications and Humanities, Collin College
Linsey Ly, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Anthropology The Graduate Center, CUNY
Brock Cutler, Associate Professor of History, Radford University, USA
Claire Bishop, Professor of Art History, CUNY Graduate Center
Ayça Çubukçu, Associate Professor in Human Rights, London School of Economics and Political Science
Ian Coller, Professor of History, University of California, Irvine
Andrew M. Daily, Associate Professor of History, University of Memphis
Tracy L. Rutler, Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Penn State University
Alice L. Conklin, Professor of History, Ohio State University
Lisa Wedeen, Mary R. Morton Professor of Political Science and the College, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Danielle Beaujon, PhD Candidate in History and French Studies, New York University
Daniel J. Sherman, Lineberger Distinguished Professor of Art History and History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Jane Burbank, Professor emerita, New York University
Christina Carroll, Assistant Professor of History, Kalamazoo College, MI
Arang Keshavarzian, Associate Professor, New York University
Chiara Bottici, Associate Professor, The New School
Norma Claire Moruzzi, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
Stacey Philbrick Yadav, Associate Professor, Hobart & William Smith Colleges
Eloïse Brezault, Associate Professor, Saint Lawrence University, NY
Julia Waters, Professor of French, University of Reading; President of the Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies, UK
Fraser McQueen, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Stirling, Scotland
Veronika Zablotsky, Postdoctoral Fellow,University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Tom Hamilton, Assistant Professor, Durham University, UK
Orane Onyekpe-Touzet, PhD student, University of Warwick and Université Paris-Sorbonne, UK/France
Jules O’Dwyer, Research Fellow, St John’s College, Cambridge
Thomas Serres, Lecturer, UC Santa Cruz
John Chalcraft, Professor, LSE
Máire Cross, emerita Professor of French Studies, Newcastle University, UK
Sinan Richards, Enseignant vacataire, École normale supérieure de Paris, France
Annabel Kim, Associate Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University
Hannah Frydman, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Pembroke Center, Brown University
Serene Richards, Lecturer in Law, New York University London, UK
Claire Eldridge, Associate Professor, University of Leeds, UK
Fabrice Roger, Teaching Associate, University of Bristol, UK.
Sara Barker, Associate Professor, University of Leeds, UK
Beatrice Ivey, Research Associate, University of Sheffield, UK.
Samia Henni, Cornell University, USA.
Adi Saleem Bharat, Research Fellow, University of Michigan, USA
Michelle Bumatay, Assistant Professor of French, Florida State University, USA
Tyson Herberger,PhD Candidate, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway
Paula Chakravartty, Associate Professor, New York University
Jennifer Sessions, Associate Professor, University of Virginia, USA
John McCormack, Assistant Professor of Religion, Aurora University, USA
Joseph Ford, Lecturer in French Studies, Institute of Modern Languages Research, University of London, UK
Rebecca Sugden, College Lecturer in French, Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
Saadia Toor, Associate Professor, Sociology/Women & Gender Studies, City University of New York
Christy Pichichero, Associate Professor of History and French, George Mason University
Lillian Specker, PhD Candidate, University of Oxford, UK
Shefali Chandra, Associate Professor of History; Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies; Asian American Studies, Washington University in St. Louis
Renato Rodriguez-Lefebvre, PhD Candidate, Université de Montréal, Canada
Maria Scott, Associate Professor of French Literature and Thought, University of Exeter, UK
Saladdin Ahmed, Visiting Asst. Prof. of Political Science, Union College, Schenectady, NY
Erik Thomson, Associate Professor of History, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Rebecca P. Scales, Associate Professor of History, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
Theo Mantion, Ph.D. Student, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Dmitri Nikulin, Professor of Philosophy, The New School for Social Research
Giorgos Noussis, PhD Candidate, University of Athens, Greece
Jessica Lynne Pearson, Assistant Professor of History, Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota
Mabruk Derbesh, University of Bremen, Germany.
Roxanne Panchasi, Associate Professor of History and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
Daniel Baker, Ph.D. Candidate, Cardiff University, UK
Ananya Roy, Professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare, and Geography; The Meyer and Renee Luskin Chair in Inequality and Democracy; Founding Director, Institute on Inequality and Democracy, University of California, Los Angeles.
Dr. Philipp Krämer, Acting Professor of Linguistics, Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)
Vasuki Nesiah, Professor of Human Rights and International Law, The Gallatin School, NYU
Patrick Luiz Sullivan De Oliveira, Assistant Professor of Science, Technology and Society, Singapore Management University
Arthur Asseraf, Lecturer, History Faculty, University of Cambridge, UK.
Sarah Griswold, Assistant Professor of History, Oklahoma State University
Rashmi Viswanathan, Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History, University of Hartford
Kandice Chuh, Professor of English and American Studies, CUNY Graduate Center
Chitralekha, Assistant Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi
Jean Halley, Professor of Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center and College of Staten Island
Hamzah Saif, Graduate Student, George Washington University
Dr Grietje Baars, Reader in Law and Social Change, The City Law School, City. University of London, UK.
Nicola Pratt, Reader of the International Politics of the Middle East, University of Warwick, UK
Svati P. Shah, Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, US
Katie Kilroy-Marac, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Canada
Jennifer L. Palmer, Associate Professor of History, University of Georgia
Amelia H. Lyons, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Programs, University of Central Florida
Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall, Professor of History, California State University San Marcos
Richard S. Fogarty, Associate Professor of History, University at Albany, State University of New York
Carolyn J. Eichner, Associate Professor of History and Women’s & Gender Studies, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Johann Le Guelte, Assistant Professor of French and Francophone studies, Xavier University, Cincinnati
Ann Ostendorf, Professor of History, Gonzaga University
Ashley R. Sanders, Vice Chair of Digital Humanities, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Sue Peabody, Meyer Distinguished Professor of History, Washington State University, Vancouver
Philip Minehan, Lecturer in Honors and Liberal Studies, California State University at Fullerton
Jean Beaman, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara
Hannah Leffingwell, PhD Candidate, New York University, New York
Spencer Segalla, Associate Professor of History, University of Tampa
Catherine Desbarats,Associate Professor of History, McGill University, Canada
Jakob Burnham, PhD Candidate, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
Kathryn Edwards, Assistant Professor of History, Tulane University, New Orleans
Michael P. Breen, Professor of History & Humanities, Reed College, Portland OR
Timothée Valentin, PhD Candidate in French and Francophone Studies, Penn State University.
Gregory Valdespino, PhD Candidate, in History, University of Chicago
Dina M Siddiqi, Clinical Associate Professor, New York University
Melanie Bavaria, PhD Candidate in History and French Studies, New York University
Kelly Wood, PhD candidate in History and French Studies, New York University
Duncan Hardy, Assistant Professor of History, University of Central Florida
Philippe-Richard Marius, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, CUNY College of Staten Island
Leslie Choquette, Côté Professor of French Studies, Assumption University
Jean-Francois Briere, Professor Emeritus of French Studies, SUNY Albany
Peter Limbrick, Professor of Film and Digital Media, University of California, Santa Cruz
Nagesh Rao, Lecturer, Colgate University
