Comments on: Asking the E question is still forbidden

by: Tim

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 17:41:50 +0000

You’ve hit my hunch perfectly - I think the French are afraid of what a true statistic will produce - in terms of back-lash. It will be fascinating to see whether demographers now rush in and ask questions about religion before that loop-hole is stopped up again. The lack of statistics about how many Muslims there are, and whether they are lapsed, practising or wavering, allows populist politicians (and the people who listen to them) to assume that everyone from the Mahgreb is Muslim, and every Muslim is a 100% believer. Michèle Tribalat’s 2003 study showing there are in reality far fewer Muslims than most journalists say, a study which was pooh-poohed by many of her colleagues because it asked impertinent questions, may be given new credibility - see my article on laïcité in Prospect in February 2004

by: French Blue

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 11:12:16 +0000

This really is nuts. It combines the worst of French academic obscuratism (and a peculiar reading of the Consitution) with what seems to be a paranoid fear of finding out what the statistics are. It simply plays into the hands of the racist right and can only promote a climate of suspicion.

by: Rick

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 10:06:49 +0000

The British are so often considered hypocritical by our friends from l’outre-Manche. My suspicion has always been the h-syndrome is alive and kicking behind a wall of French flummery. As always with hypocrisy (see Le Misanthrope) the vexing and fascinating question remains: how far is the hypocrite aware of the failing. And where exactly on our scale of hypocrisy do we place individuals of the Conseil constitutionnel?

by: Autolycus

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 13:05:32 +0000

Oh dear, oh dear. How can you possibly know if you’re meeting a guarantee of equality before the law unless you ask people to identify themselves in terms of categories that might be being treated unequally? As long as there’s a “prefer not to say” option, of course - and crucially, categories that people themselves define as meaningful (irrespective of what some expert considers to be objective definitions of race and ethnicity).