The role of terrorism, homophobia, and misogyny in justifications of institutional Islamophobia in France: a decolonial race critical discourse analysis

In recent years, Islamophobic discourse and policy in France has increasingly transcended the traditional left-right divide. In addition, existing scholarship has demonstrated how Islamophobia, disingenuously cast as an ethical, secular commitment to the critique of a particularly ‘dangerous’ religion/culture, in France is increasingly expressed as a virtue, with, for example, prominent French philosopher Élisabeth Badinter declaring that “il ne faut pas avoir peur de se faire traiter d\u27islamophobe.” This paper employs a critical discourse analysis within a decolonial and race critical framework in order to achieve two main objectives. First, it provides a historicized account of Islamophobia, paying close attention to the role of homophobia and misogyny, in relation to changing understandings of French secularism over several decades and within a longer context of ‘racecraft’ and coloniality/modernity. Secondly, this paper theorizes what a decolonial and race critical approach to discourse analysis might look like. In doing so, this paper identifies and examines the various discursive strategies employed by a wide variety of government officials, politicians, and media personalities, across the political spectrum, to justify institutional Islamophobia (i.e., policies that disproportionately disadvantage those racialized as Muslims), in particular in relation to the defense of abstract ‘French values’ and laïcité from ‘Islamists’, while often disingenuously displaying selective outrage at ‘Muslim’ homophobia and misogyny. Ultimately, this paper also argues that it is not possible to understand these discursive strategies outside of past and present material conditions generated and sustained by (neo-)colonialism and (neo-)liberalis