“The magazine of the Islamic State orders Muslim parents to withdraw their children from French schools and calls for them to kill those who teach there.” Thus declares a recent headline in the French press.
In a recent article in Le Figaro, Marie-Estelle Pech discusses the latest issue of Dar al Islam, the online French language magazine of ISIS. As Pech writes, “Titled ‘France on its Knees’… Dar al Islam returns with evident delight in its latest issue to the attacks in Paris on November 13th.” Pech describes the magazine as a propaganda tool directed toward French-speaking future jihadists.
Of particular note is an essay criticizing the secular French state schools and urging Muslim parents to remove their children from such “infidel” establishments: “The article, in a hateful and apocalyptic tone advises its readers to ‘abandon the education of unbelievers.’…The goal of this French education is ‘to cultivate in the masses an ignorance of the true religion and its moral values such as love of family, chastity…courage and manliness in its boys.’ “
According to Pech, the article states that Islam, “as the only true religion cannot coexist with this fanatical secularism.” In particular, the article denounces the secularism charter (charte de la laicite) displayed in every French public school since 2014. The charter affirms that the mission of the French school is to “share with students the values of the Republic.” As Pech writes, “The article explains why the ‘true Muslim,’ ISIS-style, should reject secularism, freedom of conscience and equality as taught in the schools of the Republic.” According to Dar al Islam, “When you put your child in the school of the Republic, you accept that he will swallow this soup of unbelief, thus corrupting him and making him borrow the ways of those in hell.”
The solution to this problem, according Dar al Islam, is for Muslim parents to move to the Caliphate which has truly Islamic schools. Pech also cites the article’s final suggestion: “It is therefore an obligation to fight and kill…these enemies of Allah. This applies to teachers who teach children secularism.”
France is routinely criticized for its inability to assimilate large segments of its Muslim population. In fact, the highly centralized, competitive and secular French public school system has been one of the most effective means of assimilation and social mobility for several generations of immigrants. Indeed, French philosopher and member of the Academie Francaise Alain Finkielkraut—the son of Polish immigrants and Holocaust survivors—has famously made this point. In an interview with Der Speigel in 2013, he said, “French traditions and history were not laid in my cradle. Anyone who does not bring along this heritage can acquire it in l’école républicaine, the French school system. It has expanded my horizons and allowed me to immerse myself in French civilization.”
The rigid secularism or laicite of French public schools has its roots in a 1905 French law. While the issue of secularism versus religious freedom in a pluralistic society is a complex one and France, in many ways, has taken the opposite approach from that of the United States, ISIS’s exhortation to French Muslim parents reveals, perhaps, just how effective French public education has been with regard to enfranchisement and national citizenship.
