Episode 4/5:Islam: the high risk debate

France has no place for religion in public life. It is the law and has been since 1905. This secularism has a special word: Laïcité. It applies across the board to all religions.

But there has been a crystallising of debate around secularism and the practice of Islam, the second religion of France. For some, Islam is not compatible with the secular Republic. For others, the obsession with secularism excludes Muslims. Particular exception is taken to the use of two phrases: ‘Islamophobia’ and "Islamo-leftism".

We travel to the prestigious school of political studies, Sciences Po, in Grenoble where an internal academic discussion into how to talk about Islam sparked a fierce reaction, with the university becoming a touchstone for the rest of the country.

We hear from the academics involved in the dispute as well as muslim students who have been affected by it.

We also look at how religion is now practised in France. Fewer people claim to have a religion than they did 50 years ago but there is a rise across the faiths of religious extremism. I would say something milder : evangelism is to extremism

Narrator & translator: Barney Spender
Creator in French: Antoine Boyer

Original music: Clémence Reliat et Nicolas Vair
Engineer: Christophe Robert
Illustrator: Julie Pereira
Marketing and communication: Laurent Nicolas, Coline Sallois

Editor: Guy Jackson
Editor-in-chief: Michaëla Cancela-Kieffer

An AFP Audio podcast

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