International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 2, Spring 2020 | Page 123

International Journal on Criminology
was imposed in certain places. It is also significant that Bernard Stasi and Alain
Touraine, who were initially opposed to the idea of a law, changed their minds
after hearing the testimony with which they were presented. But the author does
not mention this, denying or reducing the specific nature of political Islam to the
imaginary, fantastical construct of an “ideology of withdrawal, of which the fear of
Islam constitutes the driving force” (Geisser 2003, 22).
As we see, and will focus on in more detail, the anti-Islamophobic analysis
in fact poorly conceals a sociologist anthropocentrism that does not study the
motivations of actors when they are hostile to the democratic system, as these are
immediately presented—presumptively, paradigmatically, and condescendingly—
as the reactions of victims to a specific rejection (although one experienced by
previous immigrants). They are not considered as strategic elements of a political
and tactical desire to reject the changes brought by modernity to the traditional
relations between the sexes and statuses.
*
For now, and more generally, let us note that in many sociological analyses
of the issues of integration, their specifically political aspect is overlooked, in
particular concerning certain demands. A number of field studies, often commissioned
by institutional or municipal actors, do however open up several extremely
interesting avenues of inquiry. In a study by Elisabeth Dugué and Barbara Rist entitled
Les frontières de la cité: Des jeunes entre pays d’origine et société dite ‘d’accueil’
(2005), 23 this is shown by professionals working on employment and integration
initiatives in a social housing project located in the heart of a ZUS (zone urbaine
sensible or deprived urban area) in Seine-Saint-Denis:
Young people from former colonies that retain strong links with
French culture develop a particularly complex relationship between
the country of origin and the host country. According to the
social workers, they settle into a kind of blur in which they don’t
know what side of the Mediterranean they are on. One coordinator
of the Mission Générale d’Insertion de l’Éducation Nationale
(National Education Integration Project) described this position as
follows: “For example, there was this Tunisian kid in the ninth grade
... who was born in France and went back to Tunisia every two years
for a month or two ... I asked him if he was going back to the country
23 http://pmb.cereq.fr/doc_num.php?explnum_id=1520 This study was part of the “Rencontres
Jeunes & Sociétés en Europe et autour de la Méditerranée” seminar held on October 25, 2005. It was
based on a survey conducted in 2001 and 2002 and statistically updated in 2004 in Dans une zone
urbaine sensible: Les acteurs de l’Education des jeunes en difficulté. CEE/CNAM research report.
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